Island Run Sportsmen’s Club fishing derby successful on Saturday
RIDGWAY - The Island Run Sportsmen’s Club hosted their annual kids fishing derby at their pump station on Saturday and saw plenty of kids 12 and under reel in a bevy of trout.
These kids and their families fished in the pond at the pump station and the dam area there, as club members dumped buckets of fish into the water throughout the day from out of their raceways.
At the conclusion of the derby, club members gave out tickets to kids and families as each youngster went home with fun prizes.
The sportsmen’s club has been hosting this derby for nearly three decades, and the root of this derby is to maintain and introduce the love of fishing and the outdoors to local youth through the derby and outdoor programming.
For each fishing season, the club stocks thousands of fish in local waterways in Elk County and during other times of the year as well.
Coming up later in the month are their Earth Day activities, where they help students from Elk County schools to learn about the trout, test pH levels, and also learn about the environment of the aquatic wildlife that lives there.
The Island Run Sportsmen’s Club is a volunteer organization and those involved donate their time for the love of fishing and have a passion for wildlife in our area.
Club member Tom Kilhoffer started this nursery back up in 1975 when he was encouraged by a collection of what would become the other members of the founding group of the Island Run Sportsmen’s Club.
This group included Dave Erlanson, “Punchy” Viola, Herk Zameroski, John Zameroski, Tom Traveny, and Lee Lewis. Many other mainstay volunteers have kept the Island Run nursery operations running smooth for decades.
Prior to Kilhoffer and this group taking over operations of the nursery, it was run by a angler group known as the Elk County Anglers
Club for some time, and then National Fuel Gas, which created the name “Island Run Sportsmen’s Club.”
Kilhoffer thanked all the volunteers that have helped him put together this derby for Saturday and years prior, and he noted that he “could not do it without them.”
Anglers in the local area enjoy fishing in the area thanks to the hard work and dedication of the volunteers that has lasted for nearly five decades and continues to give back to the community in many ways.