Get your tackle boxes ready and hooks sharpened for the Riviera Utilities and Wolf Bay Watershed Watch Junior Fishing Tournament scheduled for Nov. 10 from 6 a.m. until noon at Wolf Bay Lodge.

Organizers expect this year’s tournament to be bigger than ever with at least 150 entrants, and every child entered will have a chance of winning trophies and medals in a slew of categories.  

Stan Mahoney, executive director of the watershed watch, a non-profit environmental organization that seeks to protect Wolf Bay, said that entrants will also have the opportunity to win prices including a kayak, custom-rods and reels, a cast-net, and many more prizes provided by local sponsors including Brunson Net, the Rod Room, Paradise Marine and Blue Water Ship’s Store.  

“We have lots of prizes and we want to make sure we have a good turn out,” Mahoney said.

Entrants should pre-register for the tournament by Nov. 1. Registration forms are available at Baldwin EMC, Summerdale; Riviera Utilities, Foley; Orange Beach and Foley city halls; Foley Convention and Visitor’s Bureau; the Onlooker; and radio stations WHEP and Sunny 105.  

The form is also available on the Wolf Bay Watershed Watch’s website at www.wolfbaywatch.org; click “read our current newsletter.”

Tournament participants can enter two general categories: 3-9 years of age and 10-16.  

Once registered, entrants will meet at Wolf Bay Lodge, located off County Road 20 in Miflin, beginning at 6 a.m., Nov. 10, to pick up their official tournament t-shirt, which must be worn throughout the contest, and the tournament rules.  

Entrants can also meet at the lodge on Friday, Nov. 9, at 5 p.m. to pick up their t-shirt before the start of the tournament on Saturday.

Mahoney said that kids can register for the tournament after Nov. 1, including the day of the contest, but organizers cannot guarantee that the appropriate-size t-shirt will be available.  

Those who have already registered and picked up their t-shirt on Friday do not have to meet at the lodge Saturday morning, Mahoney said.  

The tournament entry fee is $10, which includes the t-shirt and $15 the day of the event.  

Once registrant’s have their t-shirts, they can begin fishing anywhere within the tournament’s designated boundaries: all waters of Wolf Bay, Arnica Bay, Bay La Launch and their tributaries between the Alabama Highway 59 Bridge in Gulf Shores and Ross Point in Josephine and Mill Point in Orange Beach.  

Fishing from banks, docks and public piers is permitted, including the Josephine fishing pier at the county park on Roberts Bayou, the fishing pier under the Highway 59 Bridge in Gulf Shores, and the Intra-coastal waterway along County Road 180 in Gulf Shores.

Entrants will need to head back to Wolf Bay Lodge for fish weigh-ins, trophies and prizes by noon.  

For additional information call tournament organizers Richard Peterson or David Horton at Riviera Utilities, 943-5001, or Ann Crawford of the Wolf Bay Watershed Watch, 981-5501.