AND THE WINNERS ARE:

June 21, 2010

Actually everyone is a winner is this case. I just love to see kids fishing, and I do mean fishing, not just fly fishing.  Whatever it takes to get the kids outside away from the hypnotism of TV and the continuous hum and drone of modern electronic living (yes, even here in the wild west of Montana - it’s everywhere!)  It’s so invasive a person can hardly have an intelligent thought.

Sometime before 1995 when my husband Trav retired as a volunteer firefighter after 20 years, the Livingston City Firefighters took over the Kids Trout Derby which had originally been sponsored by the local Joe Brooks Chapter of Trout Unlimited. We don’t know why the Derby had folded, just one of those things. The firefighters picked up the ball and have been producing it ever since. I’m not generally in favor of fishing competitions of any kind, but this is different - or at least I’ll make an exception for it.

Each year the firefighters drum up enough money for prizes for the kids from businesses and folks here in the area - in fact enough prizes that nearly everyone who bought one of the one dollar entry tickets had something neat to take home. Everything from bikes, spin fishing rods, tackle boxes and money awards. 

The Derby is held at the lagoon at the Sacagawea Park next to the Yellowstone River in Livingston, this year was on Saturday the 19th of June. Probably the only serious fishing that day on or near the Yellowstone (which for some reason is called the Yellow Dog here) because the river was still running high and looked very much like chocolate milk. Not good. The lagoon is large enough to accommodate a big crowd including parents and the rain held off long enough to get the event and awards in.

There are trout in the lagoon, along with some suckers but for the big day, the Yellowstone River Hatchery along with the Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks dumped a big supply of nice fish in a few days before the event. Take a look at the pictures of the winner’s fish! The Grand Prize winner caught a 2 lb. 9 oz. brown trout (Tristan Killian - a girl!) 1st Prize Hunter Grimsley 2 lbs. 8 oz.; 2nd Prize: Lilly Weimer, 2 lb. 4 oz. and 3rd Prize: Crystal Bigner, 2 lb. 0 oz. The girls took the day! The young man second from the right won a prize for the smallest fish caught unfortunately the newspaper didn’t give his name – but he did get a prize and he was thrilled. A tip of the FAOL hat to the Livingston City Firefighters, all who donated AND the parents who took the time to bring the kids to the Derby, our hats are off to all of you.

 

We walked around and Trav took pictures and we visited with a couple of families from church, including our Pastor who brought a couple of his smaller kids. Sure, the dad’s helped their kids with the fishing, all in good sport - just look at the faces of the kids.

One of the things that impressed me was that the Derby was not sponsored by TU or FFF. I’m certainly not against either of them doing this sort of thing - I’d love to see more of this kind of kids program put on by anyone or any group which has the man power and commitment to do it. I realize you need water to do it, and I recall seeing a Kids Fishing Pond at several of the winter Sportsman’s shows using an above ground pool. They probably were a bear to install, but the kids were tickled to have the opportunity to catch a real fish - trout they could take home and eat (with a little help from mom of course.)

It is just a fun, family event - nice to have outdoors of course - especially if the weather cooperates.

The truth is we need young people to fish. If you have kids, grandkids or neighbor kids who express an interest in your fishing it is a perfect opportunity to get them started.  It certainly doesn’t have to be fly fishing. Before age eleven or so most kids don’t have either the physical strength or attention span to be successful at fly fishing. Yes, there are exceptions and if you have someone who is tugging on your shirt sleeves begging to be taught, give it a try. 

We are an aging sport folks. If we don’t pass it on it will be gone. It’s so unfortunate the manufactures of fly fishing equipment have dropped the ball. Bass Pro is giving classes on fishing. Not fly fishing! None of the biggies that I know of are doing zip to teach people fly fishing. And darn, I’ve heard some complaints from manufactures to the effect that the number of people fly fishing seems to be dropping. Duh, we’re getting old and dying off. Or becoming too feeble to climb up and down river banks much less stand around in really cold water freezing our nether parts.

While I’m thinking about it, some years ago Sage taught excellent classes, usually held at a local fly shop. Randy Swisher was the traveling “pro” for Sage and he did a great job. Then greed came into the picture. I don’t recall what Sage charged for those classes, but it wasn’t much and Sage provided everything, rods, reels, lines everything needed. At any rate, the fly shops thought gee they could do that themselves and make all those bucks. Except they rarely had anyone as good at teaching as Randy, and they didn’t have the number of rods, reels lines etc needed to outfit everyone who would attend. So the good idea became a really bad idea and the whole thing died, and now we have nothing.

By the way, has anyone ever considered doing a program for college kids? Or programs at the various military bases? Perhaps through Special Services? Everyone has jumped on helping out the Wounded Warrior programs and the Casting for Recovery - why aren’t we doing these other programs? And by the way, Livingston hasn’t stopped with the Trout Derby - part of the physical education program at Winnans Middle School is learning how to cast a fly rod. I don’t know who started it, or who teaches it - but we’ve seen the kids practicing in the school yard. Good for them.

Fly fishing (and any other form of fishing) isn’t just about fishing of course. There is much more to be learned and gained from it. While we may all fish for what we think are different reasons, it becomes a perfect opportunity to sit at the feet of God’s teachers in nature and learn the real and everlasting lessons of life itself.

And we all win.

 

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