Fishing For Charities Growing Into National Organization For Charity Tournaments

The Fishing for Charities bass tournament trail, which raises money for various charities in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, is evolving into a national organization with 52 charity fishing tournaments in 17 states signing up in the last four months.

“We are moving in a new direction,” said Dwayne Linkous, president and founder of the Fishing for Charities Tournament Trail. “We started out as a tournament trail, which was somewhat successful, but it is slowly turning into Fishing for Charities USA, a national organization. Tournaments across the country are signing up to be a part of what we are doing.”

Linkous explained that Fishing for Charities USA networks fishing events across the country together.

“You can find a charity event on our website (www.fishingforcharities.com) by state, date or lake, so whatever area you are in, if you are looking for a charity event you can find it.”

Linkous said the new national organization will also serve as a foundation for charity events.

“If we become successful to the point where we can get members and so forth, we could become a place for charity events to put in an application for equipment Charity organizations now have to dip into their own funds to pay expenses, so we are hoping to be able to provide that kind of support for them. We also do free consultation to people who want to start charity events. We’ve had three new tournaments since we started Fishing for Charity USA.”

Eventually, he said, the goal is to establish a national championship for the charity tournaments involved in Fishing for Charity USA.

“We want to do a national championship in the next year or two. All the charity events would become qualifiers where if if you win or finish in the top 10 percent you would qualify. We have not set the details yet, but we feel this can be a big operation the way it is headed, especially since so many charity events have signed up in such a short period of time.”

Meanwhile, he noted, the Fishing for Charities Tournament Trail is in full swing with the next event this Saturday on Claytor Lake, an impoundment on the New River in Virginia. The Claytor Lake Tournament will benefit St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

“I was on the lake Monday and caught a few big fish and a lot of small fish,” Linkous said. “They were really shallow. I caught most of my fish on a drop shot, but it can be a good swimbait lake, too. I also caught a few fish off docks and some off some rocky points.”

Linkous said Claytor Lake is a good bass lake, with a good smallmouth bite and a good largemouth bite.

“You can throw a drop shot on the docks and a swim bait on some of the points or a drop shot there, too. If it is a cloudy day you might even have a good topwater bite. The water temperature is hitting 75 degrees so the topwater bite is coming back a little bit, and the spinnerbait bite as well.”

Entry fee for the Claytor Lake tournament is $70, which includes a $10 entry in the Lunker Pot. The 60 percent payback will go to one in every 7 boats. Anglers can pre-register through Friday at Just Fish’N in Bristol, Va. Registration the morning of the tournament will begin at 5:30 a.m. at Claytor Lake State Park and the tournament will launch at 7 a.m.

There are two more regular season tournaments on the Fishing for Charities schedule: Relay For Life on Boone Lake Sept. 15 and Victory Junction Camp on Lake Norman Oct. 6. The Fishing for Charities Classic will be held on Tennessee’s Boone and South Holston Lakes Oct. 20-21.

Anglers must pay a $15 membership fee. Entry fee for the Classic is $120 and anglers can qualify one of three ways: Finish in the top five in one of the Fishing for Charities tournaments, win big fish in one of the tournaments, or fish in two of the tournaments.

“We are founded out of our love of fishing and our dedication to help charitable organizations that have personally touched lives,” Linkous said.

 

Fishing for Charities Tournament Trail – St. Jude Children’s Hospital

Sat, Sept 1, 2012

Claytor Lake

Claytor Lake State Park

Call Dwayne Linkous – (540) 641-3664

[email protected]

www.fishingforcharities.com