We have a winner: La Perla Contest. (Sort of)

Ok guys, sorry I was tied up most of the day and not able to share minute by minute in the fun, and sorry for the delay getting the photo to go. Anyway, I have decided to award two winners, one for the correct genus species, and one for the best location. When do you want me to tell who it is?
Gary

I wouldn't be opposed to finding out now. Thanks again for doing this.

I was pretty confident in my guess, then I noticed several people said the same thing before me!

Drum Roll please ..........

Enquiring minds wants to know ??

Two people are definitely going to have a trip of a lifetime. Thanks for doing this for the forum.

hope it was me!!!

When I was a little boy, we would catch these guys in the irrigation canals that coursed through the valley, fed by the Rio Grande River. As I became obsessed with finding ways to enhance bass nutrition, it was natural for me to think back to these critters, and so I began searching for a source so I could experiment with them. We have not had a new forage specie for bass of significance for a long, long, time.

I learned that these guys are too aggressive to each other and thus do not do well in aquaculture. The one that does do well M. Rosenbergei dies the minute water temps drop below 60, but that is fortunate so we don't have to worry about invasive species issues with it. Many of you guessed this is what I showed the picture of since you are probably aware that is the one I grow in the forage ponds. But the pic is of the native species that live in the Rio Grande.

I wanted to put you guys through this excercise to draw attention to these incredible creatures that most fishermen and biologists don't even know about, to show you that there are many variant species, and to teach you that they are in the waters you fish!! So often in life something can be right under our noses, and we don't see it. I try hard to always be teachable, and to open my eyes and my mind. It has helped me a lot over the years, and keeps me excited about life because it keeps me learning and growing.

And now for the winner...actually winners. I decided to go with two of you, because it took that to get what I was after. Dudley 44, you were the first to correctly ID the species, Macrobrachium carcinus, but you did not narrow down the location as tight as I wanted, because they were caught by some workers from the Rio Grande just above Falcon, and KevinB, you nailed that but missed the specie although you had a great guess on another variety it could have been.

Good job all, that was fun. Since there are two winners, why don't we turn this into a fish off contest at La Perla. I will take one winner, and Shipley the other, and we will find out who the real men are!! Need to figure something bad to put the losers through. The fishing has really tailed off with the heat, severe water level drops, and increasing salinity, although what makes this place exciting, is you never know...I caught very few fish yesterday afternoon, but one was my PB and the new lake record for a fish caught and not shocked: a 12/6. So, I don't know how good the bite will be, but this I do know, we will have a blast. I always do!

Congrats guys, and contact me so we can BOOK IT! Oh and if I overlooked someone and made a mistake, apologies in advance. Show me, and then I will figure something out, but I think I got this right. Thanks all!
Gary

Congrats to the winners! Fun contest.

Yes, big CONGRATS to the winners. I really liked how the contest was educational. I learned more about prawns today than I would have ever known.

Thanks for the chance to win that trip! Can't wait to here how it goes! Congrats to the winners!

I would wanna fish with Ship,as I well know he catches everthing that comes his way.

How AWESOME!!!!! I never win anything. Can't wait.

Those was sum fancy mexican crawdads.

Haha that's great. I'm glad you won then! Good job chief!