• Beaten’ My Brothers
  
  Hi, my name is Anna Debler and I am going into the First grade! One hot and
  sunny afternoon me and my family went fishing. Fishing was so fun we ate
  supper and my grandma even came. Fishing went really well we were getting a lot
  of bites! My two brothers were catching a lot of fish. We were there for a couple
  hours. After the dust settled though I caught the most fish! I beat my brother who
  was 12! I was rubbing it in their faces! I’m really good at fishing and it is so fun!

WILSON LAKE KANSAS YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP 1^st Day

My name is Nicholas Herrman, my brother, Kyle, and I have been fishing the Kansas Youth Team Series for three years. The 2019 Kansas Youth Championship was on Wilson Lake this year. At 9:00 A.M, Kyle and I had a 3lbs smallmouth, a 15in. smallmouth, and a 16in. largemouth, and the next 2 hours were unbelievable.  I caught a 3lbs largemouth, which was keeper number four. A minute or two later, Kyle caught a 15in. largemouth, which was keeper number 5. We went back through where we caught the fish at, and I caught a 3lbs smallmouth, which creelled our smallest fish. The next fish, I caught Kyle said “Dad, Nick has another one”.  Dad said, “No way”. We creelled again. I hooked another 3lbs smallmouth and said, ”Dad, I have one.”  He said, “Your joking!” We creelled a 3lbs smallmouth, and at 11:30 we stopped fishing. We creelled 7 times and 4 of them were 3lbs. We caught some more once and awhile. At the end of the first day of the tournament, we had 17lbs and was in 1^st place.  But, it was a 2 day tournament and we only had three for 8 lbs. So, we took 2^nd place. I had caught all the fish we weighed in the first day, 2 of the fish the 2^nd day, and caught my 2^nd biggest smallmouth. It was my biggest bag and biggest bag at Wilson as well. It was a fun trip.

Special guests on July 12th will be Shane Wilson, president of Fishing's Future and Steve Smits, president of Zebco. Shane and Steve are at ICAST being held in the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida.

Fishing's Future and Zebco are looking to increase the number of anglers in the United States to 60 million in the next 60 months!

Did you know the Kansas state and world record flathead of just over 123 pounds was caught in Elk City Reservoir by a crappie fisherman using a Zebco 33?

Week 7 winners of our Youth Outdoor Experience contest are Zoey Smart age 5 of Emporia and Kason Spear age 9 of Council Grove.

I met Kason while participating in a hot dog eating contest over the Fourth of July and Zoey was a semifinalist in the Great American Worm Race held at the Emporia Public Library.

Keep your stories coming!

We will be awarding fishing combos to both boy and girl entries through August and award a lifetime hunting and fishing license to some lucky youngster during Bluestem Farm and Ranch Supply's Conservation Appreciation Day Celebration, September 6-7

Hello, my name is Katie and I’m 11 years old.  I went fishing with my family and my brother forgot to bring my fishing pole.  I had to use one of my dad’s.  My dad had just caught a 3 pounder, so I went over to his spot.  I threw it out a bunch but didn’t catch anything, so I started dropping my lewer in the water in front of me.  My lower was a black one great for muddy waters.  By the third time, I put it in the water a huge fish jumped up and grabbed it.  It went through the weeds and all around.  My brother had to help grab it for me because it was jumping around so much.  I ended up catching an 18.5 long bass!  That is my record!

I was at a family reunion in Oklahoma, and we were staying at a lodge that had a lot of bunk beds. The lodge was on a lake that had three different docks spread out across this decent size lake. We were staying there for one night. On the second day, I woke up and went fishing again down by the close dock just below the path. As I got to the end of the path I saw that you hat cross about ten feet of water to get to the dock since it had just rained that night. I decided to look under this rock next to me just because I like to look for lizards and other animals. When I lifted it up I jumped because I saw a big tarantula about 5 inches across. I saw that its hole was flooded so I put the rock down and left it alone. So I started casting for a while and wasn’t having much luck, after about 20 minutes I got a bite and reeled in the fish it was a bass that weighed a third of a pound so I threw it back. I stopped fishing to the right after that and fished in the middle even though that was where I have been having the most luck this weekend. After about 30 minutes of me casting and daydreaming with no luck I got a huge bite that jerked my body forward and I started pulling and reeling fast because I could tell that he was huge! After about two minutes I got him close to the dock. I started walking into the water towards the bank even though I had my shoes on. I raised him up as much as I could to get a good look at him and in my amazement, I saw that he was a big channel cat. I was in shock because I thought he was a bass. This was also the first catfish I caught casting and reeling. I fought him to the bank and after a few tries I picked him up. I carried him up to the lodge with struggle. Everybody was amazed by my big catch. I weighed him and he turned out to be eight and a half pounds. My dad cooked it for lunch and it was amazing. Even the people that didn’t like fish loved it. He used salt and pepper and cooked it on the grill. Over it was an awesome trip because I also caught 23 fish later that day! Hope to go again next year!

• Trenna Hanlin, 4-H shooting sports instructor and elementary grade school teacher will host the show while Phil is in Texas vacationing and taking part in a Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Release.

• This week’s Youth Outdoor Experience Contest winners are Dalton Debler of Alma with his deer hunting story and Baylee Blosser, Council Grove, who loves to fish, explore the Outdoors and ride four wheelers!