My Fishing Adventures
By Christopher Sprague, Jr. Angler-Team Tuppens, Contributing Writer
Hello anglers,
I hope all is well and y’all are catching a bunch of fish.
One of our favorite tournaments of the year is the West Palm Beach Fishing Club’s KDW Classic. We did not have a boat to fish this year, so we volunteered! The West Palm Beach Fishing Club, founded in 1934, is one of the oldest and greatest organizations out there. I have been a member since I was born and have enjoyed it ever since. They are a nonprofit group solely dedicated to helping people find their passion in fishing and help protect the marine environment. They do tons to help the environment such as mangrove planting, reef dart placement for artificial reefs, and many environmental projects. They also do a lot of pop-up fishing tournaments that are small but are meant to get people on the water and offer them a prize if they catch something good. Also, they offer youth fishing programs and focus on the new generation of upcoming anglers. The biggest tournament of the year that they have is the KDW Classic which Tom Twyford, Tom Bzura “Buzz”, and many volunteers run. This year it had over 230 boats participate in it! That is a huge amount, and it was all families just out having a good day. Both the Captains meeting and awards are super fun to go to as they have great raffles, food, and tons of prizes. One of my favorite memories of the awards as a child was trying to open the treasure chest (now respectfully known as the Tyska treasure chest) full of 100-dollar bills with keys they handed out. Overall, there are 10 places for each category of fish given out including junior angler. It is always such a blast to fish this tournament, but it was also nice to volunteer for once. The club promotes family adventures on the water and have monthly meetings to get everyone involved. I highly recommend becoming a member and fishing their tournaments, it is so much fun and supports many great causes.