Easily one of the darkest hours in Louisiana fishing has lead to one of the brightest. The Dylan Kyle Poche Memorial Bass Tournament that’s held every spring at Cypress Bend on Toledo Bend is special. This event has turned into one of the best fundraisers on the water and for good reason. The efforts that the Poche family has put into it are incredible.
Dylan Poche was tragically killed in an altercation at a boat launch in 2016 at the age of 18 and the story sent shockwaves throughout the entire outdoors community. Poche was on the Northwestern State fishing team and was a name that was being watched in the fishing world.
In order to keep his memory alive and to give back to the fishing community, Dylan’s family decided to start a memorial tournament in his name. The tournament itself speaks volumes of what colligate fishing and the young people fishing it means to the Poche family. “We decided to set up the scholarship at Northwesten in memory of his name because fishing is tough for these young kids and it costs a lot of money. We don’t just help the scholarship kids, we help the whole team,” said Dylan’s dad, Burt Poche.
The event has grown to incredible heights since its inception. The first year, the tournament was held on Mother’s Day and had over 80 boats participating. The past three have seen over 240 boats participating. “We really don’t know how many we’ll get but we’re shooting for 200 again this year,” he said.
This is the 8th year and Brandon Belt Fishing is helping the family with the tournament because of it’s incredible growth. “It’s kind of gotten too big for just our family to keep doing it and they’re coming in to help out.” Poche said.
The term “event” was used by Poche during our chat and when he listed everything that will be taking place on March 23rd, I understood why. There will be fishing from the bank and live weigh-ins for the kids and prizes will be given. There will be food, a DJ, and a bounce house. “We trying to make this where people can just come and hang out and enjoy. It ain’t just a bass tournament. We want to make this an event,” Poche explained.
Now to the thing that the fishermen really like to know. What can they win? “Last year we paid out $39,000 total after we got everything. But right now we can guarantee 26,000 back to the fishermen”. For a fundraising event, those numbers are eye-opening.
As we ended our call, Burt mentioned something that really stuck with me. The reason the event is held at Cypress Bend and not Natchitoches, where Northwestern is located. “Two weeks before Dylan passed away, he came in 4th place in the BFL (Phoenix Bass Fishing League) on the pro side and it was at Cypress Bend, so thats how we decided that this is where we’re going to have it. This is where it’ll be”.
Hard to argue with that.
For more information on the event, check out the links below:
https://dylankylepoche.com/2024-dylan-kyle-poche-memorial-bass-tournament/
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