GREEN COVE SPRINGS – To attract more people to the county, officials with the tourism department and Airstream Ventures announced a plan Monday to highlight Clay’s greatest attraction – waterways.

The Kayak Bass Fishing Tournament soon will be offered as part of the strategic plan from the convention, sports and leisure committee.

“This one is not your average tournament,” said Airstream’s Kennedy Grayson. “It's a 15-month-long marketing campaign, basically. And so what that means is for 15, really 14 months, they will be marketing Clay County as they have competitors to qualify for the tournament in Clay County.

“They have to come here and catch a fish to qualify, and then in November of 2023 – we haven't set the final date, sometime in November, December or January of 2023 or 24. We will have a fun tournament that everyone will be qualifying for and that will be the other time that they come.”

“As always, fishing is always on the top of our list,” said Clay County Commissioner and Tourism Committee Chairman Mike Cella.

The tournament will have fishermen catch and tag largemouth bass. Organizers said renowned fisherman Chad Hoover will participate once the final details are worked out in the next three months.

“For those of you who don't know Chad Hoover, he has his own kind of bass fishing TV show,” Grayson said. “He has at least five million followers on every social media platform. So we're going to hit the ground running with being a kayak bass fishing destination because he's going to be here.”

Airstream Ventures was hired by the Board of County Commissioners with a 5-0 vote in 2020 to bring more sporting events to the county by identifying new and creative ways to use existing facilities.