The Fishin’ for a Cure fishing tournament, held Saturday in Long County, gave $77,000 to seven children with cancer or some other medical condition.

Hunter Martin, Kian Combs, Oren Arnold, J.D. Williamson, Hunter Stanfield, A.J. Arsenault and Emma Dyess, all children from southeast Georgia, each received checks for $11,000 from a member of the tournament planning committee.  

After these checks were presented, to everyone’s surprise, it was announced that an anonymous donor had given an additional $50,000 to be divided equally among the children, meaning that each received more than $18,000 to help them and their families deal with the difficulties from their sicknesses.

Long County Sheriff Craig Nobles, who is one of the founders of the event, said that once again the people and the sponsors from the area came through in a big way to show their support for the kids.

The fishing tournament kicked off at daylight and ran until 5:30 p.m. with fishermen from all over the area competing to catch the largest pan fish out of the Altamaha River.  At 6 p.m., staff from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources were on hand to weigh each of the fish from two-person teams to see who had the largest combined weight.

This year, the winning team was Bobby and Maggie Bowen, whose fish had a total weight of 20.62 pounds. The Bowen team received a check for $700, but then gave their money to Donald resident Eileen Moody, who is receiving a liver transplant. The second-place team who won $500, and the third place team, which won $300, also donated its prize money to Moody.  

Once all of the checks were given to the kids, an auction was held to raise more money to go toward next year’s tournament.
Several items were bid on, but the two items that raised the most money were a custom knife, which Long County State Court Judge Jeffery Arnold took home for $400, and a filled Pelican cooler, which Justin Foster took to his house for $500.

Following the auction, items that had been raffled off were given out. The most-valued prize was a custom-built smoker that Appling County resident Elizabeth Bennett won.

Nobles said this was the fourth year of the fishing tournament and by far the most successful. He thanked all who helped with the day, especially the sponsors. He said fundraisers and plans have already begun in preparation for next year’s tournament.