by James Coulter
Jason Foss and Chandler Cornelius have been attending the Reel’Em In For Rotary annual fishing tournament for the past seven to eight years. This year, they both managed to reel in a winning catch of 19.26 pounds.
Jason and Chandler won first place at the Reel’Em In For Rotary tournament. Second place went to Austin Marveli and LoLo for their catch weighing 17.36 pounds. Third place went to Ray Trudeau and Walter Thompson for their catch weighing 16.35 pounds.
Chandler owes his success to his love of fishing. He just keeps his head in the game and goes to work reeling in the big ones, he said. He did not expect to win, and yet win he and his fishing buddy did.
“It is awesome,” he said. “I didn’t think we were going to do it, but we did it…It is like my second home down there. I love fishing at Lake Kissimmee this time of year.”
This year was the 20th Annual Reel’Em In For Rotary fishing tournament hosted by the Lake Wales Breakfast Rotary at Camp Mack, A Guy Harvey Lodge, Marina, and RV Resort in Lake Wales. More than two dozen boats attended this year and took off on Lake Kissimmee to see who could land the biggest catch.
Proceeds for the event will go toward the youth programs hosted by the Breakfast Rotary throughout Polk County. One such program is their Boys and Girls Camp, with proceeds helping elementary school students attend camp who otherwise would not attend for free.
“The turnout was great,” said Rotarian Jolee Martin. “There were a lot of other tournaments going on today. So we are pretty happy…Again, based on all the other tournaments, I think are doing great. The raffle is a huge draw this afternoon. We are excited about all of the choices.”
