What exactly are the YFS tournaments?

By Bill

  Hi, this is Bill Tong, the president of Youth Fisheries Sciences. "Ian's column has grown a lot since it's humble beginnings last August. It's great seeing all the support that this column is seeing, and all of your questions. I would like to thank Ian for his great work in maintaining this column, and you guys for reading supporting this column.

 I have gotten a lot of questions recently regarding our tournaments. Everyone's heard about them, and knows a rumor or two surrounding them. There's a picture on our homepage that helps spark some of this controversy. I've decided to answer all hese questions in this article.

Above: This is the picture on our homepage that everyone keeps asking me about. BTW, there is a famous Youtuber to the right of the banner....

                                A Background
 
  We have held three types of tournaments: The educational derbies, the club tourneys, and one open-to-the-public tournament.

  We've held a lot of educational derbies, to educate kids about fishing and to introduce and promote the sport. The kids mostly caught bluegill and small bass, and it was more of a fun event than a tourney. The fish were not weighed, and there reall wasn't a time limit. They mostly involve local children and young YFS members. 

  We've had club tourney to celebrate the first birthday of the YFS (the YFS is a year old). We've met up at a pond, and fished. YFS club members only. We had a pre-fish, a time limit, and the fish were weighted. The prizes were a few lures.

  This August, I and another YFS member by the name of David decided to create an open-to-the-public fundraising tournament, to raise money for conservationist causes (it was sucessful, we got several hundred). We have gotten good feedback from other tourneys, and decided to create one open to the public. 

Above: The pre-fish before the club tournament. It was held after our 4th of July Parade. 

  It was a bit of a challenge, because many of of key members were away, and some resources were tied up, but we pulled it through. We got WSSC, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, to allow us to use Triadelphia Reservoir for the tourney. They were very generous in doing so. We also found a sponsor in Angers Express. We got a turnout of about 30-40 people, including fishing Youtuber 1Rod1Reelfishing (Michael Hsiao), and some nice prizes (A casting rod, more than a few baits, and gift cards). 1Rod also donated some MTB boxes to the prizes. 

  Despite hard fishing conditions (only three bass were caught), and the heat, we got some very positive feedback. A lot of people were asking for another tournament before summer ended, and I got to meet 1Rod. 

                  Are there going to be more?
 
  Educational derbies? Definately. YFS Club tourneys? For sure. We are going to really improve our club tourneys and educational derbies and have more and better prizes, with more volunteers and attendants. I'm entertaining the idea of a potluck at next years club tourney, but no guarantees. 

  Open-to-the-public tourneys? It depends. The hardest thing, by far, was finding a good location. I've got good prizes, and good management laid out.  I'm looking at using a private pond for the next tourney, but no luck so far. I'd love to make one, but finding a location is just too hard. If you would like to make a suggestion, please shoot me an email at the Contact Us page. 

Regards,

​Bill Tong