Fishing Derby 2021 went to plan, during COVID, a fluke of an April northeaster snow dump, and some bone chilling winds. On April 7th, a summer day at 70 degrees, the club took in over 200 trout – brown, brook, and rainbow, between 10″-16″. Club volunteers readied the pond area and shed on April 10th for Pond Cleanup Day (see list in the photo album), a sunny 75 degrees, and observed many trout chasing minnows out of the water. We did have some stocking die-off, we raised the water level for 12 hours and improved the O2 and pH levels to stave off any more loses. On April 11th, volunteers observed a bald eagle circling the pond and snatching a trout from the surface. Charlie, chair of the fish committee, organized the volunteers for running the derby on April 17th, rounding up prizes and fishing gear donations (thanks Chris Giglio for the box of lures; thanks Cabela’s for $100 in fishing merchandise), food and drink, and capturing the names for the derby participants. To keep everyone warm on Derby day, we offered coffee, hot chocolate, egg sandwiches, hot-dogs, hamburgers, venison chili, and donuts.
Matt’s son and daughter, as well as Harold were youth prize winners for their caught fish. Paul Whalen had the first trout caught of the day. Paul Whalen and Wayne Adams tied with the longest trout caught at 12″ . Rocky had the luckiest rod/reel/lure combo to loan out – Harold caught two fish in less than 5 minutes, before and after his youth turkey workshop. Paul offered Powerbait to several of us who were getting skunked; Paul’s secret lure is a Colorado spoon with a coat of translucent purple nail polish. Traditional baits of minnows and worms were snubbed through the derby. Derby day volunteers were Charlie, Rocky, Tom, and Wayne.
Pond is remains open to fishing dawn to dusk, 2 fish per day, 6 fish per week max. Please help clean the area clean, use the trash cans.
