WHITEHALL — Saturday, June 8, the White Lake Area Sportfishing Association hosted its annual kids’ fishing contest at Goodrich Park. Kids of all ages gathered at White Lake with their friends and families in a race to catch the largest size fish.
“The kids’ fishing contest is to introduce kids to fishing who have possibly never been fishing before,” WLASA President Bob Ingalls said. “The vision is to reconnect kids with the outdoors, to give kids an introduction to conservation and using our natural resources. To give them the message of keeping things in nature nice, so we can enjoy these resources for a long time. We want to make it fun and we want to give back to the community. It’s a family friendly event.”
The contest began 13 or 14 years ago and is always hosted on the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ free fishing weekend, meaning nobody needs a license to fish that weekend.
“Kids today spend a lot of their time on devices and screens, and they’re not getting outside enough,” said Ingalls. “I think that’s a tragedy. They’re missing so much. So having an event like this, that’s free to everybody, it’s a good thing.”
The basis of the fishing contest isn’t only to provide a free, fun event for local families, but also to educate future fishers of the White Lake and Michigan area.
“We raise money through our annual fish boil every August, which has been going on for 42 years,” Ingalls said. “It’s been a big community event and with those proceeds, our organization does a number of things. First, we do outreach to kids to get them hooked on fishing. We do a kids’ fishing seminar in the winter, aimed at the fifth grade level, where we have our experts teach them how to tie knots, the basics of casting, introduction to ice fishing, a little bit of biology on identifying fish and lessons about where they live. Then, with the kids’ fishing contest, we carry on that theme.
“We’ve been reaching out, trying to get as many kids as we can and get their parents involved and get them out fishing. Every kid gets an opportunity to weigh any fish they catch. We don’t care what the species is. The 10 biggest fish caught in each age group, boys and girls win a medal, a fishing pole and a t-shirt. Everyone who participates goes home with a goodie bag full of basic fishing tackle that was donated by White River Tackle, Armstrong’s and Johnson’s Great Outdoors. The fishing poles this year were donated by the National Professional Anglers Association.”
Ingalls encourages community members to continue returning to the WLASA fish boil every August and looks forward to continuing the education of fishing in the community.
“I want to thank everyone who participated and our sponsors,” said Ingalls. “I think we’ve got a wonderful tradition in Whitehall going on with this contest.”
