Saturday Fishing Derby Fun

I took the kids to the old neighborhood to attend the annual fishing derby.

It was nice to see old friends and see how people are doing. The old neighborhood has a beach lot and boat basin on Cass Lake, and each year the homeowners association buys some trout, seals off the boat basing and has a fishing derby. As such trout could be taken, anything else was catch and release. As former residents we get invited to attend.

So I found, dusted off, and loaded the fishing rods into the car and off we went.

After we arrived, I then spent a while with them both teaching them how to cast. Abby picked right up on it and Leah took a bit more instruction which made sense. After awhile they got the hang of it and were happily casting away.

Neither of them wanted to handle the worms initially but Leah was soon having as much fun handling and scientifically examining the worms (which were huge) as she did fishing while Abby seriously concentrated on fishing. I was however the only one to put the worms on the hooks, as both girls asigned me that "yucky" job.

Here's one of the scientific worm exams:

Leah would carefully examine each worm and declare it fit for bait. With a fanfare of "Duh, duh, duuuuh - you're bait!" she would hand over the chosen worm to be hooked. She did however release a cute little worm onto the grass to escape being hooked up with destiny. Even worms can be cute to a six year old.

The first thing caught was by Leah - a dock with one of her casts. Since it wasn't dock season, we just removed the hook from the wood and got on with fishing.

After many a cast and many a worm was lost, Abby caught a three and a half inch bluegill, and was even able to reuse the worm after releasing it.

Then Abby caught the monster fish of the day - a nine and a half inch bass.

Leah then caught a three inch bluegill.

All three fish were released and swam off none the worse for wear,

We caught nothing further except for weeds and one piece of rope, but the kids were very happy with their achievements and had a very good time.

The snapping turtle that lives in the boat basin made a cameo appearance at the derby as he does every year.

After some snacking and small talk with old friends I took them home as they were happy but fried.

A really great day with the two of them.