Voices of the Community: Running a Virtual Fishing Tournament for Charity

***UPDATE***

Due to recent news regarding the event, I have written a follow up post. The original article will remain intact as a testament to what the event was intended to do.

***ORIGINAL ARTICLE***

Preface

When I started Fishing Prairie and Shield, my vision was to tell stories about my fishing experiences and offer education to anglers. While writing articles about my experiences, I felt that there were many voices in our fishing community that should be heard, just like myself. Everyone has their unique experiences and perspectives. As a result I wanted to bring out the stories of other local fishing personalities, content creators and businesses.

So here is the first Voices of the Community article of the site. If things go well, expect more Voices of the Community posts in the future.

The Full Tilt Winter Walleye Tournament

With the Covid-19 pandemic, many live fishing events have unfortunately been cancelled. Many of these events raise money for good causes and provide an enjoyable fishing environment for families and friends. I myself was involved in several of these in the past and I can definitely see how these events bring our community together.

The Full Tilt Winter Walleye Tournament is a virtual fishing event held over the Fish Donkey app from February 20 to March 7. Participants from across Manitoba will be able to submit their big walleyes through pictures and videos on the app. There are tons of prizes donated by various sponsors. In the end, all proceeds will go to the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba. Despite the pandemic, virtual fishing events like these can still proceed.

I wanted to share the behind-the-scenes of running a charitable fishing event. Fishing Prairie and Shield is proud to have Christian Lillyman, the director of the Full Tilt Winter Walleye Tournament, here with us. Christian is an avid angler from Manitoba’s fishing community. I watched his idea grow big with support from local organizations. As a first time tournament director, it was definitely a unique experience for him with a lot of challenges and surprises.

So here is his story.

Note: This interview was conducted on February 10, 2021. The development of this tournament is still on-going as of now.

Conception of the Idea

I’m a family man and I have 2 kids of my own. We usually do 3 to 4 derbies a year and this year with everything being cancelled [due to covid], we all missed it. A lot of people were probably bummed out. All events help good causes, there’s a lot of money made from this and the fishing community is pretty good with that.

It got started with my wife and I fishing in the shack all day. It was a slow day of fishing but I was lazy and I didn’t want to move as we were all setup and cozy. We started talking and I said as far as I know there’s no events happening, there’s got to be a way around this. So we started thinking about an idea to create a fun and affordable event for families and for people to get out. It could also lead to other people going to events in the future. The Fish Donkey app has hosted over 4000 tournaments, I’ve participated in several of those tournaments so I knew how it worked.

I just wanted something positive to come out of this since there is so much negativity in the world these days. I said enough of this, time to change it.

Getting Sponsorship and Prizes

I think the hardest part was getting that ball rolling. It’s not like I’m a big name in the fishing industry. Nobody knew who I was. I just started knocking on doors, sending emails and messaging people on Instagram and Facebook and seeing what I could get for prizes. Soon more people found out about the idea and they really liked it. One person talked to another person and they talked to another person. Soon I was getting emails every day and more and more gear.

As of now I’ve got 16 boxes loaded full of prizes and soon to be 40 prize packages. My wife is basically sorting a bunch of stuff in Tupperware containers. Without my wife this would not be possible, she has put in just as many hours in this as I have. My house has basically turned into a tackle shop.

The Community Outreach

One thing that I really found super cool about the community was not just the big companies and big names but a lot of the small businesses coming out. Lots of people were coming asking “What can I do? Is there anything I can help with?” Sometimes they couldn’t offer much but they really wanted to take a part of it. I accepted everything with open arms. Everything builds towards more. It was quite heartwarming to see the community get together. None of this would be possible without the sponsors and people participating.

Promoting the Event

We are promoting this 99% through social media. I’ve also done a couple radio spots and I’m talks with the Winnipeg Free Press to have an article written. Though the mass majority has been promoted through Facebook and Instagram. People start talking to each other and they spread the word about it.

The giveaways are a fantastic way to be interactive. It makes people sign up and gets them talking about it. The voices when people phone me or when I’m phoning them regarding giveaways has been the coolest thing in the world. We just hand delivered the rod that the kid won last night as I happened to be in the area he was living in. It was a father with two boys, aged 12 and 13. They were super incredibly stoked and excited. After the hours you put into it and seeing the excitement on people’s faces, it’s all worth it.

The Most Surprising and Enjoyable Aspects

The community was what surprised me the most. I knew it was going to be a lot of work to run this event but I totally underestimated it. The amount of support that the community has put into this just blew me away. I didn’t know what I would be waking up to the next day. I would get different emails, personal messages or company messages. I was like “Holy Smokes! There’s another company that wants to put something into this!”

I know there are lots of new anglers. I got messages from people saying this is going to be their first tournament. They’ve never done anything like this before but they were super excited. I love reading those messages.

A Word for the Sponsors, Donors and Participants

There’s really only one thing to say and that is “Thank You”. There’s not a way I can repay people for taking the time of their day and their money out of their pockets. It’s really just wow and thank you. I hope this generosity continues for other events. I hope it really pushes people back into positivity.

Final Words

I thank Christian for spending his time to share his story and passion on Fishing Prairie and Shield. It’s clear that running such an event takes a lot of dedication but it too brings a lot of satisfaction. Events like these really show the strength of what the community can do when united to help a common cause. I wish him good luck for the rest of the tournament and that all goes smoothly.

To keep up with the latest developments of the event, follow the Full Tilt Winter Walleye Tournament page on Facebook. Rules and prizes can be found on the tournament’s page on the Fish Donkey app.