Some charity tournaments only draw a small field, but Dwayne Linkous, founder of Fishing For Charities, is hoping the Speedway Children’s tournament on South Holston Lake Saturday is one of the higher turnout events.

“Bristol Motor Speedway has a charity that helps children in the area surrounding Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia, and we are doing a tournament Saturday to help their children,” said Linkous.

The idea of an umbrella organization is a new step in holding fishing tournaments to support various charities, he said.

“We just turned into a national organization about three months ago and we are basically doing charity tournaments across the country. We are trying to get them under one umbrella so we can hold a national championship. It’s going to be awesome at some point – if we get some major backing.”

Linkous said the idea began with a tournament to support his son who has Niemann-Pick Disease, a rare terminal degenerative disease for which there is no cure. Niemann-Pick is a genetic, cholesterol storage disorder that primarily strikes children, with death usually occurring before or during adolescence.

“Then we got into doing charity events. We have several tournaments that we support. Make-A-Wish granted my son a wish so we support that. One of our members had children getting help at the St. Jude Hospital so we put them on the list. Several of our members are veterans so we added the Wounded Warrior Project.”

The organization holds and supports charity tournaments in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Remaining tournaments include the St. Jude Tournament on Claytor Lake Sept. 1; Relay for Life, Boone Lake, Sept. 15; and Victory Junction Camp, Lake Norman, Oct. 6. The Classic will be held Oct. 20-21 on South Holston and Boone Lakes.

The entry fee for the tournament Saturday on South Holston Lake is $70 per person, Linkous said, with payback for one in every seven boats. The fishing should be excellent, he said.

“I would say it is one of the best smallmouth fisheries in the country, so there are going to be a lot of big smallmouth weighed in. I expect it will take 17 to 20 pounds to win Saturday,” said Linkous who has fished the lake before and is fairly familiar with the fishery.

“A lot of times the fish there are caught deep, sometimes 30-feet-plus. They will probably be caught on deep drop-shots, jigs and jigging spoons.”

The first ever Fishing For Charities Classic will be held in October, he said, on two lakes. One day will be on South Holston Lake and the other on Boone. The order of fishing will be determined in a drawing the day before the classic, he said.

“We’ll crown a winner after two days of fishing. The winner will get $4,000 cash and a $1,000 shopping spree at Just Fishing in Bristol. The Day One leader will get a $500 shopping spree and the Day One Big Fish will also get a $500 shopping spree. The Day Two Big Fish will get a payout from the entry fees.”

Fishing for Charities Speedway Children’s Tournament

Sat, Jul 7, 2012

South Holston Lake

Observation Knob

Call Dwayne Linkous – (540) 641-3664

[email protected]

www.fishingforcharities.net