Kids fishing derby gets young anglers hooked on fishing

The annual Southwest Outdoors Club Kids Fishing Derby attracted 311 youngsters and just as many adults on Saturday, July 6 at Wheatley Harbour.

Fishing lines and lawn chairs lined the edge of the west side of the harbour, with cries of “I got one!” ringing out early and often.

Although the catches slowed down as the day went on, some large fish — as long as 20 inches — were caught by kids looking for the big prize.

The annual event brings out the best in teaching kids the necessary patience and perseverance needed to snag the big one, or even a little one.

The majority of the catches were bullhead catfish, with the odd white perch, sheepshead and carp thrown in for good measure.

Early on, one of the young anglers caught a small mouth bass, and one or two yellow perch were also seen at the measuring table.

The Southwest Outdoors Club goes all out for this event, with over 300 prizes adorning the prize tables, so that every kid can go home with something, whether they catch a big fish or not

To round that out, eight bicycles are given away — one of each to a male and female in each age category.

The club also supplied barbecued hotdogs, chips and a drink for everyone in attendance — adults included.

Free loaner fishing poles were handed out to those who came empty-handed and every young fisherman got a cup of worms.

Rob Dietrich, who was at the worm table all morning, said they usually go through about 1,000 worms for the day and this day was no exception.

Outdoors Club president Dan Reive said the turnout was excellent and the weather was perfect.

Bicycle winners were Emma Neufeld and Landon McKeen (0-3 years), Trudy Weverink and Brody Leitch (4-7 years), Melanie Elias and Josiah Neudorf (8-12 years) and Jisenya Heide and Logan Krahn (13-17 years).

Those who caught the biggest fish for their age group received a nice trophy. They were Michael Bissonnette (0-3 years), Josh Kay (4-7 years), Noah Nguyen (8-12 years) and Ashley Rose (13-16 years). Ashely’s 20.125” carp was the biggest of the day.