The Prime WATER Anglers (PWA), a local organization dedicated to offering outdoor programs for youth and making improvements to Wisconsin River’s shoreline infrastructure, will hold its 16th annual Bass and Walleye Spring Classic tournament Saturday, May 21, and Sunday, May 22, based out of Club 10, 1602 County Road HH W, Stevens Point.

Registration for teams of up to two people is $100. Teams can fish for walleye and small- and large-mouth bass on the Wisconsin River from the DuBay Dam to the Stevens Point New Page dam.

A mandatory rules meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 19, at Club 10 for registered teams. Teams can register by calling Bob Jakusz, owner of Club 10 and PWA member, at 715-344-7128 or stop at the Club to pick up a form.

 “We’ll have a beer and burger tent set up in the back parking lot both days. Typically, we get nice crowds, especially if the weather’s nice, to watch the weigh-in. We do the weigh-in up by the bank, and we release all the fish. We’ve got a really good track record of not losing any fish. But it’s a good visual for the people who come to watch because we’ve got some really good sponsors now with tents set up and weigh table where everyone gets to see the fish,” said Jakusz.

The Spring Classic also features prizes for biggest bass and walleye each day. Weight-ins Saturday and Sunday will be held at 3 p.m.

Profits from the tournament, as in previous years, will go to fund the PWA’s various projects. For example, last year’s tournament funded the Kid’s Fishing Day program and the recently-completed pier in Bukolt Park, which was constructed by PWA volunteers. Other projects include a host of boat landing renovations.

Jakusz said PWA has completed, or been involved with, renovation projects on nearly every boat landing in Portage County.

“(The Spring Classic) is our biggest event of the year and is our biggest fundraiser to fund the local projects that we have done and what we’re doing right now,” said Jakusz.

“That’s the way it’s been through our whole existence. We have the tournament to raise money. We’re all fishermen, some of us were tournament fishermen – I don’t do that too much anymore – but we knew how to run a good tournament,” said Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza, former PWA board member and current member. “We wanted a nice, local tournament, and we figured if we did that people would come out and support it. We used the proceeds to pay for our other programs.”

“In a nutshell, our yearly goals as far as any projects include those boat landing (renovation) projects and other projects like Kid’s Fishing Day,” said Jeff Rautio, vice president of PWA. “We just brought on another program called ‘Kid’s Quest’ that we’ll add in 2017. The funding for those projects and the programs comes from the tournament.”

The PWA’s Kid’s Fishing Day is a program that partners local children, who sign up through their elementary school, who don’t have access to boats with a boat owner, which are often volunteer members of the PWA, for a day of fishing. Volunteers also teach them the basics of fishing such as tying knots, what lures to use and safety tips.

“Our largest group last year was about 40 youngsters, so we’re looking to attract more for this year,” said Jan Nelson, PWA member.

“We’re always looking for volunteers for the Kids’ Fishing Day,” said Jakusz. “One day is a classroom, they teach them filleting fish, trying knots and casting. Then the second day we take them out in the evening. Club members and volunteers bring their boats to Bukolt Park, and we split them up, take them out fishing, bring them back and give them prizes.”

“Like a tackle box full of tackle and rod and reels and miscellaneous prizes, all from our sponsors,” Rautio said.

This year, the Kid’s Fishing Day will be held June 14 and 15. Parents of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders – in both public and private schools in Portage County – interested in signing up their children can obtain forms through their elementary school office, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Portage County or the Stevens Point YMCA.

“We try to target kids that wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to go out fishing,” Jakusz said.

“They don’t have to go out on a boat, if they don’t want to. We do shore fishing as well, but for those who want to they can,” Wiza said. “I tell you, it’s probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done because a lot of times these kids are just so tickled to be doing something. You know, as you get older you go for the trophy fish or the trophy deer or things like that. But one kid, all he wanted to do was ride around in the boat. He had never been in a boat before and thought it was just the coolest thing.

“There was another kid I took out, and we dropped a (fishing) line, and before I even had my rig set up, he caught an 18-inch walleye. Very respectable for anyone. I put bait on mine and threw it off the side and helped him. (Later) I hooked in to a carp. It was probably a 15-pound carp, it was a big carp … but it was a carp. And that kid was so wide-eyed. It was the biggest fish he’d ever seen in his life,” said Wiza. “It really puts it all in perspective.”

For its most recent park improvement project, PWA just completed a new handicapped-accessible pier on the lagoon in Bukolt Park. The pier is one of five PWA plans to install in the area.

The Spring Classic typically attracts about 60 boats – usually with two per boat – each year, and Jakusz said the PWA hopes the usual faces return and also to spark interest in fishermen who haven’t participated as well.

“The tournament is an 80-percent payback to the top fishermen, and the payout is contingent on how many teams sign up,” Jakusz said. “We like to call it the ‘premier local tournament on the river’ … we like to think it’s the Cadillac of river tournaments.”

“We’ll have raffles and prizes for the fisherman,” said Rautio.

This year’s main raffle prize is a 9.9 horse-power Mercury outboard motor, provided by event-sponsor Mercury.

Jakusz said there are a few out-of-towners that participate each year, but the Spring Classic is a local tournament at heart because the proceeds and money raised stay in the community. Whether it’s used for a new dock or pier or to get local kids out on the water for a day of fishing, the money stays in Portage County.

“All of the money that doesn’t get paid out during the tournament gets spent right here, very locally,” Jakusz said.

“In either our project or our programs,” said Rautio.

Some future projects the PWA hopes to tackle are putting in new cement boat launch pads at Galecke Park and starting a Kid’s Quest youth program to take disabled children out on a pontoon boat with PWA volunteers for a day on the water they might not have the chance to experience otherwise.

“(Kid’s Quest) is going to be a program for disabled/special needs kids so the parents can call us and make an appointment for a two/three-hour trip on the river, free of charge,” said Rautio.

Additionally, PWA is seeking new members. Right now, the club has 16 members – who take on the management of kids’ programs as well as the labor of renovation projects – and Nelson said recruiting new members is very important as well.

“One of our major sponsors called us the ‘hardest-working little group’ he’s ever seen because there’s only a handful of people doing all the work,” said Jakusz. “It would be nice to gain some members. We meet every first Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. here at Club 10.”