The rain that had been falling for the better part of a week had stopped and the clouds seemed to have parted – there were even patches of blue sky – on Sunday morning around 5:30 to 6 a.m. when a lot of bleary-eyed people were getting up to bring their kids down to the 16th Annual Salmon Arm Kid’s Fishing Derby. The question on most of their minds was would the weather hold?
Well, it it did hold out for the whole of the morning and well over 600 participants, parents and grandparents, from as far away as the Lower Mainland, came out to celebrate Father’s Day down on the docks at the end of the wharf at Marine Park.
Within minutes of the official 7 a.m. start, little bitty Jenna Rae Pieper caught and landed the first fish of the derby. During the awards ceremony which followed the derby, Peiper received the Mall at Piccadilly Trophy, a rod and reel outfit and a $100 Daybreak Rotary scholarship for her catch.
After that, the more than 200 kids who had registered for the derby just kept on catching fish after fish – close to 400 were caught (and mostly released) over the course of the morning.
Nicole Andrews landed a 2,210-gram whopper to secure first place in the Largest Fish category. Andrews received the Salmon Arm Savings and Credit Union - W. J. (Bill) Murray Memorial Trophy, an IM-6 graphite fly rod and reel outfit, and a $100 James Murray Scholarship. She will also get to take her whole family on an all expenses paid weekend fishing trip to Beaver Lake Lodge, which will include accommodations, boat and motor rental and $100 worth of groceries from Askew’s Foods. Not bad for one coarse fish. Dawson Enright took second place honours in the Largest Fish category, while Logan Ferguson placed third.
Throughout the morning their was quite a rivalry between three or four ardent anglers vying for the Most Fish category. In the end, Mason Buzzell won out and walked away with the City of Salmon Arm Trophy, a one-year pass the the SASCU Recreation swimming pool and a rod and reel outfit. He also received a $100 Rotary Club of Salmon Arm scholarship.
Andrea Penner and Carson Venna caught and landed fish closest to predetermined secret hidden weights and each received a mountain bike from Canadian Tire.
The Fourth Annual Best Fishing Story Contest, sponsored by the Salmar Grand and James Murray and held in conjunction with the Kids Fishing Derby, was won by Hillcrest Elementary School Grade 5 student Mackenzie Hall. Not only will her name be engraved on the Salmar Community Association Trophy, she also receives the $100 James Murray Scholarship and a One Year Pass to the movies. And if her pass isn’t a cool enough prize, everyone in her class receives a one-time movie pass as well.
Jamie Walters won the Canadian Tire Parent Appreciation draw prize of a fully decked-out, stainless-steel barbecue and $100 worth of groceries from Askew’s Foods.
As with most events in town, a lot of volunteers helped out to pull the derby off. I take my hat off to not only all the sponsors and volunteers who helped out with this year’s Kids Fishing Derby, but also to those sponsors and volunteers who get behind every other event. It made me feel pretty good Sunday, when the derby was over, and three different young people (who would be 13 years old next year and, subsequently, too old to participate in the derby) came up to me and said they wanted to volunteer next year.
All in all, I’d say it was a pretty good event - I know a lot of kids (and parents) sure had a lot of fun.