For 10 plus years the junior fishing event has been bringing kids out to the Rainy River Walleye tournament and getting them involved in the weekend event. Kids from across the Rainy River District and into Minnesota come out annually to fish off the dock in Hannam Park.
Gabrielle Langlais has been a volunteer with the kids tournament since its early days when it was an initiative of the local Kidsport group.
“I was involved with Kidsport at the beginning, and we were just trying to provide different activities for families, or children to do in our area. We just thought this one was a really cool idea to provide families [something to do]. It doesn’t need to be an expensive activity for a family to do. It’s nice to be able to go fishing with your family and stuff like that. So with Kidsport, we were always trying to provide different activities and different events, but that weren’t so costly for families or, you know, so they could explore different things in our community.”
In recent years the Rainy River Rec has taken over running the kids tournament.
“What they do is come to register in the morning, and then we have two age groups, seven and under and then eight and up, so we have two flights,” Langlais said. “So the first group fishes for about a half an hour and the parents are to be with their children, and they have life jackets on, and they just go down to the dock. We provide the minnows, all they’re asked to bring is their life jackets and their fishing rods and we usually have some spare fishing rods if somebody comes without one. Basically, we’re just trying to get the children involved and have families having a fun, inexpensive day.”
While the children are fishing whenever one of the young anglers pulls something in, there’s no required species for the kids tournament, a volunteer will help measure the fish. The goal is the longest fish rather than the heaviest.
“Any fish works,” Langlais said. “We’re not fussy, it’s more about the fun of fishing right? Usually the northerns are the ones that get the longest fish.”
Even if kids don’t pull the longest fish out of the water nobody goes home empty handed thanks to the generous community.
“It’s been amazing the sponsors that we have gotten,” Langlais said. “Then what we do is we buy prizes. There’s three trophies for each age division…”
Then there are prizes for all of the rest of the participants. In a Facebook post last week, Rainy River Rec said every child will go home with some prize and all of the kids will be going back into a draw for three big prizes. With the grand prizes available being and Inflatable Paddle Board, or a waterproof speaker, a Summer Bundle consisting of a sun tent, big floaty and towel or a sports bundle tennis racket, tennis balls, hockey stick, street balls, tape, soccer ball, a SpikeBuoy game and baseball bat.
Donations towards prizes have come in from individual community members, and businesses across the Rainy River District. The Rainy River Rec has been acknowledging donors via its Facebook page as well.
Registration for the Kids Fishing Tournament at Rainy River Walleye will open at 10 a.m. and is free to all kids. The seven and under flight starts at 10:45 a.m. and the eight and up flight starts at 11:30 a.m. Parents must stay with their kids and each participant should bring a fishing rod and life jacket. Life jackets are mandatory for kids. If children don’t have a fishing rod or life jacket and would like to try fishing you can contact the Rainy River Rec on Facebook or by calling 807-271-4463.
