Nice weather helps Reeling for Kids set some records

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Blessed with nice weather, a large field of angling contestants produced a record-setting weekend at Doug Johnson’s Annual Reeling for Kids fishing tournament at Steinhatchee. Of the 112 teams entered, 76 competed in inshore category while 36 chose to seek offshore species. A great variety of impressive fish was brought to the weigh scales each day, taken from water a foot deep all the way out to the Florida Middle Grounds.

In the tournament that the ex-Gator and NFL quarterback envisioned and created to benefit children, a couple of skilled young fishers showed their stuff. Chase Norwood whipped an 18.45-pound barracuda to take the top Junior Offshore Angler prize, and Troy Charles, Jr. pulled off the notable feat of boating a 4.5-pound trout and a 4.8-pound redfish over the two days of competition to earn the Junior Inshore Angler award.

A new Friday-only “Trout Stringer” prize went to the team of Cole Childers, R.J. Dick, and Ian Taylor. Casting large mullet-colored surface lures near the Pepperfish Keys area, the Gainesville trio boxed a 5-fish tourney trout limit that weighed 13.75-pounds. Given legal length restrictions and the event’s warm weather date, this winning weight could stand in the RFK record book for some time.

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2011 Reeling for Kids Fishing Tournament to be held June 3rd and 4th

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The 2011 Reeling for Kids fishing tournament to benefit the Boys and Girls Club will be held June 3rd and 4th.

The total purse of the event this year is over $30,000. They will be raffling away a 21' Mirage boat with a 150 Mercury Engine valued at $70,000. The raffle is limited to 1000 tickets to increase the odds of winning. This boat was built specifically for the Reeling for Kids tournament. For a detailed list of the prize payout click here.

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New videos about the Reeling for Kids Celebrity Fishing Tournament

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In this video we hear from Coach Urban Meyer who says that he may be attending the event this year. Doug Johnson gives details on the payout and prizes along with other information about the upcoming tournament. Keith Blanchard closes out the video with some information about the Boys and Girls Club of Alachua County.

In this video we see footage from the 2010 Reeling for Kids Tournament:

 

Results for the 2011 Fishing for Kids Tournament

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From Children's Miracle Network at Shands Hospital for Children at the University of Florida:

Youth AnglersThe 7th Annual Fishing for Kids Tournament out of Sea-Hag Marina in Steinhatchee was a huge success this weekend. We had 59 boats registered and 18 youth anglers competing.

The competition was close, Gary Bonner III fishing with his son Clayton took the $1,000.00 first place tie at 12 lbs. with the tie breaker big trout weighing 4 lbs. 15 oz. That left the team of Casey Cook and Ashley Mock in second place for $400.00 with their 12 lb. five trout bag.

Third and fourth tied as well at 11 lbs. 15 oz. each. The tie breaker was decided by 1 oz. with Keith Hollingsworth taking third for $200.00 and Warren Marshall teamed up with James Mullins for $100.00 for fourth.

Gary Bonner III and son Clayton took home Largest Trout and the bag prizeBiggest trout went to Clayton Bonner at 4 lbs.15 oz. for $250.00 and rounding out the winners with Biggest Redfish weighing 6 lbs. 9 1/2 oz. for $ 300.00 was the team of Alan Mattox and Eddie Davis.

As you can see in the attached photo, all of the kids were winners holding their new rod and reel combos. In all a little over $ 14,400.00 was raised for Children's Miracle Network at Shands Hospital for Children at the University of Florida.

We'd like to give special thanks to all of our supporting sponsors as well as the staff at Sea-Hag, you were great.

Click here to see all the photos from the weigh in.