Future Lund Boat Captains ‘Keep Score’
OutdoorHub 08.29.12
Frazee, Minn., boys capture International Angler Young Angler Championship title
Aspiring lads begin their baseball careers with t-ball. Lots of hits; errors galore; and nobody officially keeping score. (Although you can bet your last minnow that the naturally competitive kids always know the tally, as do their parents.) Angling follows a similar path. At first, kids learn how to minimize tangled lines and keep flying treble hooks away from flesh. Naturally, the next step is keeping a mental fish count, waiting for the day you beat “the Old Man.” And finally, if competitiveness is in your DNA and the passion of fishing is in your blood, you begin testing the tournament world.
Fast forward to today, and you have the winners of the 2012 International AYA Tournament in Kenora, Ontario. Young anglers Jacob and Ryan Roble, along with adult angler Craig Jindra, were guided by Lund Boats Pro Staff Cary Pettinger and spotted up a cumulative walleye weight that’d make the toughest tournament veteran cry – six fish for an all-time tournament high of 53.25 pounds. (Yes, that’s an average of just under 9 pounds apiece.) And as you’d expect from young conservationists, all of the fish swam peacefully back toward the bottom. The grand prize was befitting for red blooded North American kids, too. The Roble boys are “Going to Disney World!” – quite literally, for four days and three nights. The Roble brothers, who were sponsored by Hoot’s Sport in Perham, Minn., qualified for the international event by winning the AYA Regional Championship in June.
Second place finishers, Brian and Brady Paul with adult angler Ross McVey, who were guided by Lund Boats Pro Staff Blair Dingwall and weighed 42.58 pounds of walleye, won a guided fly-in fishing adventure trip for four at the Wilderness North Lodge in Canada. The Pauls, who were sponsored by Power Sports in Abrams, Wis., qualified for the event at the AYA Regional Championship in Green Bay in June.
Pardon the pun, but these kids are clearly “hooked”… and will continue keeping score in a competitive world.