Hey guys,

It has come to my recent attention that many high schools are starting fishing clubs for their students. However, there's some significant obstacles to overcome. Mainly boats and drivers willing to take students out. I thought, what better way to teach kids about our shared addiction than to start up a kayak division!

With that being said, I would love to get a conversation started to help get this idea off the ground.

Here's what I have so far, starting a SAF club. The Bass Federation (TBF) has a high school division for bass boats already with rules, insurance, club start up info, etc. I contacted the director about starting a kayak division and he has received approval from their insurance to extend the coverage to kayaks.

I have a long list of contacts at surrounding schools in the DFW area and would love to gain more. So if you know anyone that might be interested in seeing the club at their school, please forward this information to them and feel free to PM me their personal contact info.

Lastly, cost is a major factor in getting this off the ground. Most schools don't likely have the funds to purchase yaks for their student anglers, so some loaners would be extremely useful for practice/tournament days. If you would be willing to help out with this regard, please PM me. I know my personal spare yaks will be available for students to borrow, supervised of course.

Teaching the students about nature conservancy, sportsmanship and competition are only a few of the great benefits awaiting them. There are some great opportunities for the students to earn scholarships through the organization, not to mention the introduction to such a great life-long sport.

I think this! I don't have any extra yaks but if I can help out in any way please let me know. Something like just supervising the kids or whatever. I am all for fishing in youth and this sounds like a great way to get more fishing. I know a couple teachers in the Crowley and burleson school districs I will forward this on to them. Great work!

I am a teacher here at Lewisville ISD and would be interested

Cody (C Frog) may be a good person to talk to about this.

Working currently with a couple of high schools,, would be happy to help just let me know. Already have everything in place.

I'm a school superintendent and we would be interested. We have a local bass club and some of my students are in it and fish out of their kayaks. I have often thought that a high school kayak bass fishing team would be a great way to get a few more kids involved. You may want to give the UIL (university interscholastic league) a call and see if they have any interest in sanctioning a kayak division school fishing team. If the UIL would get on board you would have tons of schools participate. I feel we could raise the money locally to start a small team pretty easy. The hardest part is getting a group organized to put on tournaments for the kids and then getting all of the kayaks to the local along with your students, etc. I think you would want to stay on smaller waters with limited boat traffic for safety reasons. There's a lot of details to iron out, but overall, I think it's a great idea.

I would love to help out. I have extra sit in yaks they can use.

I tried for a year to get a kayak fishing team at my school. I had little support from administration and they told me that they preferred me to just follow the lead of other high school fishing teams and stay with power boat. I stepped aside at that point, but if there was something more organized I would be in for sure

Wisicaughtmore, where are you the sup at?

Callisburg in North Central Texas

this is great guys! thanks for the support. I'll be in contact again with the director at the student angler federation on Monday to work out some more details. I'm initially looking for an event around the spring break time (Mid-March) and we are in the very initial planning stages.

I'll also need to arrange some sort of boater safety orientation to help appease the insurance folks and school administrators. Does anyone know of some sort of safety course that I could recommend?

This topic might make a great "sticky" to keep up with it!