A recent Saturday night in Kentucky found 187 young boys and girls climbing aboard bowfishing rigs with their parents, guides, and chaperones to compete in the 2015 Jarred Ashmore Youth Bowfishing Tournament. The annual event started by Andy Cardwell in memory of good friend, Jarred Ashmore, continues to grow to be the largest youth bowfishing event of its kind.
Mathew Schillinger and Dennis Redden of AMS Bowfishing throw out t-shirts to warm up the crowd of kids as the event got started.
Upon arrival at the event, the kids were treated to free food, drinks, 3-D archery at the Bowfishing Tour tent, and a pile of free gear that awaited each child at the end of the night.
The Bowfishing Tour booth, sponsored by Bowhunting.com, gave the kids the chance to sling a few arrows with a bowfishing slingshot.
The event is totally free to each child. Once entering the building, a quick registration by a parent or guardian with one of the many tournament volunteers is all that is required to participate. While there were some seasoned shooters at the event, there were also lots of first-timers to the sport of bowfishing that registered for this tournament.
The Jarred Ashmore tournament is totally free for the kids. Each child simply had to be registered with a parent or chaperone to be eligible to compete.
Prior to the pre-tournament meeting, the kids gathered around the Muzzy and AMS boats as freebies were thrown from team members of each. T-shirts, caps, bowfishing towels, and other goodies were thrown out to the anxious crowd of kids.
Bryan Hughes and Mark Land of Muzzy Bowfishing toss Muzzy swag to the over-anxious crowd of young bowfishermen.
After the scramble for bowfishing swag was complete, it was time to meet up with tournament coordinators back inside the building to go over tournament rules, safety instructions, and prepare to launch. Finally, a prayer asking for God’s blessing and safety on the event was offered up prior to turning the teams loose.
A quick team meeting took place prior to launch to discuss safety rules and plans for the night.
With great excitement, the teams took off from the parking lot with their boats in tow. It’s a game of hurry up and wait as teams impatiently wait on the local police to do their best at ensuring all the boats safely exit the tournament grounds. The excitement continued to build as boats lined up at area boat ramps anxiously awaiting their turn to launch.
68 boats lined up to haul nearly 200 kids out for a great night of bowfishing on the water.
The weather was perfect for this year’s event. Most teams were able to hit the water as the sun was beginning to set with ample time to make the boat ride to their honey-hole for the night.
Sundown means go-time for eager youngsters trying their hand at bowfishing. The Jarred Ashmore Youth Tournament provides many kids with their first opportunity to experience bowfishing.
Despite the fish playing hardball, the kids had a blast flingin’ arrows at rough fish all up and down the rivers of west Kentucky. Some shot for a couple hours and headed back to the boat ramp while others pushed it to the last minute of legal time before scrambling back to the tournament site for weigh-ins. As with any tournament, weigh-in time at the scales is always a hoot. There’s lots of excitement with each boat that pulls up…especially when kids are the ones pulling fish from the barrel. There were 3800 lbs. of Asian carp taken out of the waters by the 68 boats involved in this year’s event.
The Perry Twins had a boat full of big shooters as they came back to the scales for weigh-ins.
Weigh-ins finally wrapped up in the early hours of the morning and the much anticipated awarding of prizes finally got underway. Prizes were awarded for the biggest fish, heaviest limit of five fish, and many other categories. Bows, gear, toys, and everything in between were a part of the giveaways at this year’s event.
Every child wins big at the Jarred Ashmore Youth Tournament. And many even took home a brand new bow.
The beauty of this tournament is that every child wins big. The opportunities they are given, the lessons learned, and the piles of great gear they go home with make this event a lot like Christmas.
Good times, big fish, and lots of smiles come standard at this youth tournament.
Just look at the smiles on the faces of the kids in attendance and you’ll know that Andy Cardwell and the Jarred Ashmore Tournament crew are on to something good. It’s an event that continues to engage young people in the good things of life and promote the exciting sport of bowfishing to the next generation of shooters. Join the excitement of the Jarred Ashmore Youth Bowfishing Tournament when it rolls around again in 2016. I hope to see you there!
