BILLS BASEMENT BLOG - 3rd Annual Carp Fishing Tournament

Ok, now I know Carp fishing doesn't have anything at all to do with basements. But, hey, I'm Bill and this is my basement blog and I want to talk about it anyway. Soooooo, here we go......

This year marks the third annual Carp fishing tournament for Cystic Fibrosis to be held in Perry Iowa. If some of you don't know where Perry is, it's about half an hour north west of Des Moines on highway 141. If you've never been there you really should make the trip. I've lived out there for about 10 years now and I gotta tell you, it's just one of the nicest places in Iowa to be. Anyway, to stay on task here. The tournament this year will be on Saturday August 25. Regestration and check in will start at 6 30am at Patee park in Perry. All proceeds from regestration and the raffles will be split in half, with half going to the 3 kids involved this year and half be paid out in prizes.

The cash prizes will be paid to the Team with the biggest fish and the team with the heaviest stringer wieght. There will also be a small prize for the team with the smallest fish. After wiegh in all the fish will be donated to Avian Resources, a group that cares for Bald Eagles unable to care for themselves in the wild. Avian Resourses will even have a Bald Eagle at the event. I can tell you, if you've never seen a Bald Eagle up close you have got to check it out. They are much bigger in person than I thought they were.

There will also be a huge bake sale. This alone is worth the trip. I was amazed last year at the huge selection of baked goods donated by area chefs. I can tell you this, my wife and I stocked up on all kinds of baked foodstuffs.  

Every year there has been a lot of donated items raffled off and this year is no different. Midwest Basement Systems has donated a boat again. This years boat is a 16 foot Allweld semi v flatbottom. the boat has an aluminum floor and mount for a trolling motor already installed. We purchased this boat from SW Marine in Palo, IA. Earier this year Brian Galavan (one of the organizers of the event) was at a fishing show at the fairgrounds in Des Moines and talked with the folks at SW Marine about the fishing tournament and where the proceeds went and SW was very interested in getting involved.

So when the time came to purchase the boat we got ahold of them and made the 2 hour drive. I can tell you it was worth the drive. These folks specialize in boats made for hunting and fishing and we got a great deal on this one. If you are in the market for a fishing boat give them a call at 1-515-289-1606. Tell em Bill sent ya.

The tournament has always been a great time for everyone involved. The volunteers have a lot of fun organizing and putting it on. A lot of people leave with some very tasty baked goods. A lot of people win raffle prizes and a couple people win some money because they're better at fishing (or just lucky, I'm not calling that one) but at the end of the day it's all for a great cause. So come on out on the 25th of August and do some fishing on Racoon River.