Rainbow trout fishing for charity

Part of the 1,800 pounds of rainbow trout that were stocked in a pond at Bass Pro Shops in Pearl for Saturday's fundraising fishing event to benefit the Batson Children's Hospital in Jackson.

Saturday’s event in Pearl will benefit Children’s Hospital

Rainbow trout fishing in Mississippi?

At a Bass Pro Shops?

In February?

Yep, that’s right, and it’s for a great cause.

Proceeds of Saturday’s Fishing4Friends event at Bass Pro Shops in Pearl Will benefit the Friends of the Children’s Hospital in Jackson, which supports the Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

“We stocked 1,800 pounds (about 1,500 fish) of rainbow trout in Bass Pro Shops’ pond and we’re selling tickets to fish for them for $100, with a goal of raising between $20,000 and $25,000,” said Scott Kirk of Mississippi’s office of Southeastern Pond Management in Canton. “We had a client, Bobby Arnold, who wanted to do a charity event for the Hospital. We talked about it one day at Bass Pro Shops and (BPS) manager Pat Renegar said, ‘hey, why don’t you do it here?’ Perfect solution.”

Arnold, a Jackson-area businessman and avid angler, and Southeastern Pond Management paid for the fish, which were bought at a fish hatchery in Arkansas. Kirk said the fish were stocked last week in the pond that surrounds the Pearl store.

“I know Pat went down there and caught four in like 10 minutes, so I am hoping people are going to catch a lot of fish on Saturday,” Kirk said.

In addition to fishing, which will be between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., a raffle is being held with lots of nice gifts from different sponsors, Kirk said. Among them are Bass Pro Shops, Mississippi Outlet Malls, the Mississippi Braves and Bank Plus.

Tickets to fish are $100 and raffle tickets are $10, and both are available at Bass Pro Shops and online at foch.org/events/fishin4friends.

About Bobby Cleveland 1343 Articles
Bobby Cleveland has covered sports in Mississippi for over 40 years. A native of Hattiesburg and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Cleveland lives on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson with his wife Pam.

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