Walking down the back porch steps on Tuesday, I tried to give my little girl a brief explanation of what election day meant.

“Today’s election day, and everyone’s going to go out and vote,” I said.

“Wow, Mama. They’re going on the boat!” was her response.

While there were very few boats involved in casting votes on Tuesday, that wasn’t the case this past weekend when the Bill Dance Mississippi River Monsters Mega Bucs Pro Series Catfish Tournament came to town. All I can say is, if you’re not one of the estimated 1,500 people who attended the weigh-ins on Saturday and Sunday, you missed out on a good time.

More than 50 boats drove through the Vicksburg Convention Center on Saturday for the chance to win big money, and in a tournament first, the top four fishing teams decided to go big or go home, opting to fish a second day instead of splitting $90,000 amongst themselves after the first round.

I’ll be honest — after seeing the fourth-place team take home $10,000 on a “bad day of fishing,” I briefly considered leaving journalism for the fishing tournament circuit.

But to me, the real value in the MRM tournament was not the prize money doled out, or even the opportunity to see some of the biggest blue cats in our little bend of the Mississippi River. The real value comes in the stimulus the tournament provided our local economy.

Vicksburg should count itself lucky to have hosted the tournament — and should be excited for its return next year.

From hotel stays to multiple meals dining out in our local restaurants, the MRM crowd invested time and money in Vicksburg and all it has to offer. In return, we offered them the River City’s unmatched hospitality and some of the best fishing the teams had ever seen.

Amid all the pageantry of the anglers riding into the VCC on board their boats, triumphantly hoisting monstrous catfish over their heads, each team was given a moment to talk about their fishing experience. What impressed me was, nearly every team used their time at the microphone to thank Vicksburg for opening its arms to them.

I even got to indulge in a couple of celebrity meet-and-greets on Saturday, with the legendary Bill Dance and John Godwin from “Duck Dynasty,” and both were singing our city’s praises.

Godwin was exactly as he appears on TV, and he admitted he needs to get across the river to Vicksburg more often.

And growing up watching Dance on Saturdays, it was a chance of a lifetime to thank him for years of entertainment and education about fisheries and sportsmanship.

This past weekend was the exact kind of publicity and attention our city needs.

There are so many people who made this event possible, chief among them VCC Executive Director Erin Southard, South Ward Alderman Alex Monsour, Visit Vicksburg, the Downtown Vicksburg Main Street Program and countless merchants who opened their doors and worked together to make the weekend special for guests in the city.

It was a weekend of firsts for many of us, but thanks to the hard work of a few people, it won’t be the last.