1st place grand-champion Shawn Rahilly and 2nd place winner Nolan Wright are shown here with YCA founder Kevin Bushnick and Silver Lake Chief of Police Dan Kingsley and Officer John Kosterman. /Submitted photo
On Friday June 10, Silver Lake hosted its second major youth fishing event. About 20 kids participated including five kids from the Silver Lake area. The program was sponsored by the Youth Conservation Alliance and Muskies Inc., where 17 expert and professional fisherman from Illinois & Wisconsin volunteered their boats and time on a Friday to take the kids out fishing.
These programs are run by Kevin Bushnick, founder of the Youth Conservation Alliance. Kevin also serves as the National Youth Fishing Director for Muskies Inc. The event sees significant help from the Silver Lake community and local businesses including Barb Ironside from the BP Station and Kent Ipsen from the Dairy Queen. Barb from the BP helps out in a big way during the early morning 5 a.m. boat launch and coffee rush. Kent from the DQ is all lined up and ready to go when about 65 people come in off the water absolutely starving after 6 hours of power fishing.
Steve Butler, teacher from the Silver Lake school system also gets involved making sure kids in the area who love to fish get an opportunity to participate in this event. In fact, the Silver Lake area kids took all top-three positions. 1st place grand-champion was Shawn Rahilly, 2nd place winner Nolan Wright and 3rd place winner Logan Dunn. 4th place went to Eddie Foulk from Dundee, Illinois and 5th place was won by Julie Tierno of McHenry, Illinois.
The Police, Fire and Water Patrol get very involved in these events to of course make sure everyone is safe. But also, to let the kids know the police are there not only during times of trouble, but also to protect and support them when they want to have some good, clean fun outdoors. Silver Police Chief Dan Kingsley said “This event is one of the most positive things I have seen in the community and I’m glad to be a part of it.”
These events always include father and son teams but more recently, fathers and daughters have been participating. In fact, there were five father/daughter teams in the mix this year. Bushnick said “It has been my experience over many years that yes, these kids really do like fishing, but what they like even more, is simply spending time with their dads.” Bushnick went on to say the sport of fishing, is something the entire family can enjoy, regardless of age.
The Silver Lake youth fishing event wrapped up with the kids catching over 40 fish including Northern Pike and Bass. Watch for details on future youth fishing events on www.theyca.org
