Can You Fish For 24 Hours Straight?

[Aaron J Scott]

The Recycled Fish 24 Hour Fish-A-Thon is just a few months away, and we're working on signing up teams to participate this year. If you'll recall, Team Longboat--Kyle Kosovich, Brian Wise and myself--competed last year and won the top prize--a "trip of a lifetime" to Lake Vermilion in northern Minnesota, where we'll be hurling hunks of fur and feathers at angry musky because we raised around $1600 for the group. There are a ton of other great prizes from the sponsors of the event--I received a new custom-built fly rod for raising $300 in a single day and Kyle got a nice art print for catching the top rainbow.

Here's how it works--it's a fundraising effort for Recycled Fish with 2- or 3-person teams. These teams compete on their home lakes and streams, so it's a national tournament--actually, international, since there are a few provinces in Canada represented now. Everyone starts fishing at 5:00 p.m. sharp and continues until 5:00 p.m. the next day. Teams not only compete by raising money, but also by catching fish. It's a C&R, photo-based tournament. Each team receives a special tape measure and a PIN number. Every fish you catch is photo'd on the tape, safely released, and then recorded on an entry sheet. The information and photos for each fish are sent to the organization and then plugged into the AMI Fish Calculator, which is weighted for species based on the where it was caught.

Last year, our team was the only one in Missouri, but we raised a bunch of money for Recycled Fish and got a bunch of great exposure for the event and the organization. This year, I want the Ozarks to do even better. I'd love to see several teams in the area. It's a great challenge and it all supports a great cause. Read more about it at the Recycled Fish site:

Details for the Recycled Fish 24 Hour Fish-A-Thon

If you care about our fisheries and resources and want to help make a difference by educating others on how to take better care of them, this event is a great way to support that mission. BTW, you don't have to fly fish on a river like we did last year--in fact, we were the only team throwing flies on a river. Most of the teams will be fishing lakes and ponds on conventional tackle so long as they are practicing SAFE angling techniques--not dumping bait, carefully handling and releasing fish, etc.