Well let me start by telling you about the fishing derby me and the wife took the kids to last week that was put on by a local fishing club (Avon Anglers). It was at a local park (Powder Mills Park) that has a trout hatchery located there and a great stream (Irondiquoit Creek) running through it. Well anyways Avon anglers sponsered a kids fishing derby, they would give you bait and poles if you needed them. My oldest caught a 10" brown trout and my youngest didn't even get a nibble. They gave out trophies and had door prizes at the end. My oldest was one of the first few tickets called and won a fly fishing combo off of the door prize raffle. My youngest was one of the last numbers called and the only thing they had let were t-shirts (he really wanted a new fishing pole). But at the end they made an announcement of another derby put on by a local Rotary lodge this weekend at the park.
My oldest went camping with scouts so I decided to take my youngest and let him have another try at it. He didn't like his pole anymore so he asked if he could use one of mine, which are all open faced reels. I said sure and grabbed my ultra-light and his old pole(just in case he can't get the hang of an open face). I only brought some corn, split shots and a few extra hooks, last week was all catch and release and I didn't want to carry the tackle box. Well we get there about 15 mins. late and after registering we head over to a nice hole that we were at last week, too many poeple there so we head back to another hole that the kids used last week. On the way there my son says "how about we try here"? Although it didn't look promising I said sure. I gave him my pole and let him start fishing while I tried to nurse my hanger (a whole nuther story
). We weren't there 10 mins. and he hooks a nice 16" brown trout
He's exited - I'm pumped. He reels him in after fighting it for a couple of mins and I reach down and pulled the fish out of the water for him. We have it measured and recorded and toss it back. So he goes back to fishing- mind you he's using my open faced pole which he's never fished with, casting great, fishing great. Then it was about 15 mins. later he hooks another one. This one looks bigger and is putting up a better fight. The poles bent all the way over and he's reeling as hard as he could but the fish is still running up stream. One of the officials was right there and asked someone if we could borrow a net. In the mean time I tightened the drag on the reel so my son could get the fish out from under some roots it swam into and closer to my so I could net it. He brought it some and I swoop the net down to get it, well the fish had other plans and took back off up stream (I almost go in). He fights it some more brings it closer to shore again and this time I net it. We pulled it up and could instantly see that this monster was bigger. It measured 19 1/2"
We had it recorded and tossed it back. He's pumped, I'm stoked, and now there are alot more kids coming over and fishing this spot. He caught one more trout, 11 1/2", before the derby is over. We go up and wait for them to had out the trophies. They had 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for 9 and under and the same for 10 and up, and then overall winner. Well we watched as they called off the winners for the 9 and under and he wasn't called (1st was only about 17"), we watch as they call off 10 and up (first was only 17 1/2"). Then they announcent the overall winner was a 9 yr old that caught a 19 1/2" trout and called my son up.
He caught the biggest fish of the day and won the biggest tropy. And I'm the prodest father there. So later that day I go out and buy him his new pole that he wanted (opened face reel) as a reward of a job well done.
