2007 Captain's Tournament was again held on White Bear Lake. Based out of the north side public boat landing, over 40 kids ages 5 to 16 and their families were treated to a fun day with great weather, games, food and fishing. The “Captains” are kids who participated in the Fish-A-Thon last year, and are considered leaders this year. There was a good turnout of about 30 volunteers who guided the participants for this tournament.
This is the tournament that produced a 40.5” muskie for a 9 year old boy last year! (See Sept. ’06 issue of On The Water)Our own John Newman was one of the boat guides who volunteered for this event. He was assigned a young man who really liked to fish for bass.
Naturally, he wanted to cast near docks and was flipping a worm rigged “Wacky” style (I believe the hook is placed midsection). Well, of course, someone was bound to catch a muskie this day and he happened to be one of at least two kids that hooked one! Unfortunately, he didn't’t get it in the boat, but the fact that he hooked and played a fish is usually considered a good day of muskie fishing for anyone! I
t’s also a testament to the Twin Cities chapter’s efforts to make the Twin Cities area a quality muskie fishery! It’s only fitting that the same John Newman who has implored us to sell raffle tickets for the past few years gets to help a kid to hook into a muskie that VERY LIKELY WAS STOCKED BY US!
The other youth that caught a nice muskie (though under the legal size) was possibly holding a fish that was stocked in the last couple years. These guys are both on their way to an addiction known as Muskie Madness.
Next thing you know, they’ll be joining Muskies Inc, and maybe becoming regular participants that will keep fishing through their lives. Even better if they can influence their peers and get more kids fishing. As a side note, you should really be inspired to get kids fishing, by seeing the picture of the Smith sisters from the chapter’s Frank Schneider 40th Annual Tournament.
Other kids caught lots of panfish, some bass and even a walleye was brought in. There were seven northern pike caught that day, including one over five pounds. As the Youth Director for our chapter, I gave each of those kids a large bass/pike-size spinnerbait as an incentive to fish for the more “toothy” species.
Our chapter also provided a trophy pike and a trophy muskie (a gift from the Hugh Becker estate, along with the spinnerbaits) to display for the participants. These were set out as examples to help people learn to tell the difference between the two and also inspire awe with their size! I fielded many questions about these fish, even from some adult fishermen who didn’t know much about them or our organization. Some fisherman had never heard of Muskies Inc.!The Fish-A-Thon group has been a good one for us to sponsor with all the events that they do and the exposure we get. I hope that next year we’ll see a few more of our members at an event or two. It’s well worth our time! To those chapter members that helped – a big “Thank You”.
