By Louie Stout
St. Joe Valley Bassmasters Youth Tournament
The St. Joe Valley Bassmasters Youth Tournament is a good place to get your children fired up about fishing.
The 44th annual event, cancelled last year due to covid, will be held on the banks of Worster Lake Aug. 14 in Potato Creek State Park.
It’s slated to start promptly at 9 a.m. and ends at 11 a.m. The event is free to kids ages 4 to 14, although you will have to pay the state park fee to get on the grounds.
There will be prizes and every kid goes home with a goody bag with school supplies, candy and a T-Shirt. The prizes were donated by local merchants.
The children are divided into age groups. There will be boy and girl divisions for ages 4-7. 8-11 and 12-14.
The local club gives away a lot of cool prizes, including bicycles, TVs, fishing equipment and other great prizes to the top finishers in each division. The contest is determined by total inches of fish caught, regardless of fish size or species.
After the derby, the kids get fed free hot dogs, chips and soft drinks.
All you have to do is bring the child, fishing gear and livebait and accompany him or her while fishing from shore. Club members will be on hand to assist.
The youth contest is one of the longest running kid events in the Midwest and averages 175 kids each year. You can save time by pre-registering. Simply go to the club’s website (www.stjoevalleybassmasters.com), click on youth tournament and download the entry form. You also can sign up the morning of the event beginning at 8:30, but the club urges parents to pre-register their children so it can get a handle on how many it will have.
For more details, call Blaine Pickavet at 574-344-7709 or email him at bpickavet@yahoo.com.