Tournament with your kid.

[Little buddy]

My little girl is 8years old and wants to do a tournament with me. I'm soooo excited to think she wants to do this with old dad. I want to take her on a local just for fun tourny and teach her as much as I can about tournament angling. I love fishing with my kids and hope they can experience as much fun as I have had doing tournaments too. My love for fishing came from my dad and it seems my kids all have got it in their blood like I do. Any good stories about tournaments with your kids would be fun to read. Have a great 4th everyone and be safe....

[DJL66]

I have been doing the AYA yearly tournament for the past 5 years now. My son is 10 and has been fishing it with me for 5 years and my daughter is 7 and this will be her second year. They as well as me just love this tournament and is the high light of our fishing season.
Anytime spent on the water with your children is time well spent but adding the excitement of a "tourny" to the mix makes it a little more special. I know my kids will always look at this time as a positive experience and hopefully they will do the same with their children.
Enjoy your first tournament experience I'm sure you'll make a lot of memories.

[Verado Eyes]

I cant wait till my kid is born and big enough to come fishing with me. i think its totally awsome that she wants to fish with you. congrats.

[Buddy09]

Fishing a small walleye tourney tomorrow with my 12 year old granddaughter. I've been waiting for this day for several years... when Hannah was 10 she asked to fish a tournament with her Papa when she turned 12. Should be a great day, memories for a long time.
I'll let you know how we do.

Buddy09

[walleyedmike]

My son and I really enjoyed fishing the Angler/Young Angler tournaments on the Illinois River out of Spring Valley. Every child gets to get up on stage and talk about their day on the water, hold up fish, etc. There are volunteers on hand to launch and retrive you and your boat and drive you to the stage, just like the big tournaments. It really makes them feel special, and every child wins a prize. We were fortunate enough to win the last AYA tournament that we were eligible to fish in (my son was 17), and the memories will last a life time. We had a great time travelling up to Lake of the Woods in Kenora, Ontario to fish in the AYA Championship, and they provided guides with their own personal boats for each qualifying team. I would recommend it to anyone. It's too bad that it is no longer held on the Illinois River, they did a TREMENDOUS job every year.

[Burr]

I help run an AYA tournament on Devils Lake. I'll share a story from a couple years ago from our winning team.

A father, his daughter and son made up the team. The father and son are pretty passionate about fishing, but in all honestly, the daughter kind of agreed to go with. The night before the tournament "Amelia" was getting pushed pretty hard by her mother to bait her own hook. She explained that women have phermones in their skin that attract the fish, and she will benefit from baiting her own line.

The day of the tournament came, they headed to their #1 spot, and when they got there, another team was tied up to the tree they had done well on prefishing. The dad said, we'll just go over here, and tie up to this tree close by that we saw another boat fish yesterday. After they tied up, for the first time ever, Amelia put the leech on her own line, and dropped down the slip bobber.

Within 30 minutes, she had to put her own bait on the hook several times, the score in the boat was Amelia 3, Kyle and Tony 0. They were all nice, respectable fish that they kept in a no cull tournament.

Amelia's brother then had the idea, and asked Amelia if she would put the leech on his hook too? She agreed, liking the new-found power she was yeilding with the other "fisherman" in the boat. A few minutes later, Tony caught his first fish. At about the same time Ameila caught another.

Not to be outdone, Dad thought he needed in on some fish catching too, so he reeled in his line, held his jig and leech and asked Amelia if she would touch his bait too. Not sure if I even have to say it at this point, but yes, Kyle then got in on the action and landed his own fish.

The team was in the second flight, and had a 10-12 mile boat ride to get to where they were fishing. With tournament rules, weigh 5, no more than 8 in the livewell, and no cull, at about 11 AM it was time to bring all the lines in and head in with their catch.

Imagine for a moment, or maybe think back to when you've had a good bag in the livewell, and how the boatride in can be enjoyable. Kyle was good enough to know, that this was going to be a slow boatride, that would be enjoyed to the max. They stopped several times to check the fish, not that they had to, but it was soooo much fun.

Shortly after noon, they were back at tournament headquarters, we backed their trailer in, loaded them up, and drove them up to the scale. They were the first to weigh in, and now had to live through the anxiety waiting for the rest of the teams to come in, weigh their catch, and find out where they would finish.

They did win the tournament, and while they did not have a big audience during their early weigh in, there was a crowd of 250 people there when they were the last team standing in the top 10 countdown. They had accomplished the role of being "Champions".

The Devils Lake AYA draws some very big names in fishing, and this family was in the 3rd year of the Devils Lake AYA amoung previous champioins that most of us probably recognize their names - Tom Backer and Jason Feldner, who were also fishing this tournament amoung many other notable fisherman.

Kyle, Tony, and Amelia went to Kenora that year for the AYA International Championship, as described in an earlier post. Tony bought out his sister's half of the Lund boat, Mercury motor, and Shoreland'r trailer package they won that day, and still fishes in the boat at their MN lake home, and the Red River behind their home.

They will be fishing again this year in their final Devils Lake AYA Regional tournament on July 14, as Amelia will age out of the tournament after this year.

The win was nice, but the smiles are priceless. Miles of Smiles One Fish at a Time!

If you are on facebook, "Like" FM Walleyes Unlimited, Inc's page and there are tons of photos of this 2010 tournament, and many others.

[walleyedmike]

Great story!!!

Memories like these are made every year at AYA tournaments across the country. I would urge anyone who has an AYA tournament in their area to take advantage of the opportunity. Spend some time with your kids without the distractions of everyday life. Catch some fish, or just have a blast trying! There are no losers, every child is made to feel like the entire day was just for them!

I'd like to add one more story. This took place on stage at the Championship in Kenora.

The parade of boats had already started, the top 10 teams were slowly being whittled down to the winners, who would win an all- expenses paid trip to Disney World. The excitement was building with every team to have the photos of their fish shown on the big screen and their totals posted.

As the last team of two young men took the stage, everyone learned that their parents weren't present, they weren't able to make the trip. Their guide, Andrew Klopak, was kind enough to keep them in his care while they participated in the Championship.

Well you can guess who won. Yes, these two young men were the winners of the Championship. What you may not believe, is what happened next. Without having Mom and Dad there to consult, these two young men announced that their trip to Disney World would be donated to the Make-A-Wish foundation, so that "someone who really needed it could enjoy it."

There was not a dry eye in the entire tent.

[Little buddy]

These are all great posts, thanks guys, I enjoy this site so much, really great people in the world.

[Derwood]

My 10 year old's doctor just told us about this tournament on Tuesday at his appointment. Her husband and son fish it every year and she couldn't stop talking about how awesome it is. We're looking into participating next year...