Healthy Lake Youth Fishing Derby a success
Rider Gray is a 7 year- old who, in his words “loves to fish,” being one of the 250 entrants in the Youth Fishing Derby held March 9 in Ninette. We were able to catch up with this very busy young man and his Mom, Larissa, to talk about the event, fishing and family.
This was the first derby he had ever entered and was thrilled to be part of it, finishing the day with two entrys on the walleye leaderboard; one finished number 2 measuring a whopping 35.5 cm, and the other slightly smaller one at number 5 at 33.5 cm. These two placings afforded Rider with two prizes of his choice.
According to Rider, there were a lot of great things to choose from; he picked a four pack of walkie talkies and a GT snow glider.
Fishing is a big part of this family’s fabric, enjoying time together and catching fish, with Rider adding that sometimes his Grampa goes with them.
According to Larissa, they first took Rider out fishing with them when he was just three months old. He admits he doesn’t remember anything about that, but he does remember the first time he had a rod in his hand and was actively fishing.
He was already 3 years old by then and had been carefully tutored in the art of angling, including baiting his own hook with kielbasa. Naysayers may poo-poo the whole idea of using kielbasa, but Rider knew what he was doing – he managed to pull ten catfish in that day. For anyone not in-the-know, catfish put up quite a fight when they are on the line.
I asked Rider why he liked to fish so much. Simply put he said, “We spend time together talking, listening to music and eating snacks, like kielbasa and we catch fish. It’s fun.”
Going back to Derby day, Rider said he was pretty excited about his first fish, then he caught his second, but just as he was about to pull it from the water – it got loose! He was admittedly very disappointed, however any good angler knows you never give up.
Putting his line back in the water it took no time at all for his next fish to be caught. According to Mom Larissa, the excitement of Rider’s next catch was so infectious that upon hearing the kerfuffie, one of the volunteers went running over to see if he could be of assistance, throwing his gloves off in the foray – but Rider had it all under control, pulling out the walleye that ended up ranking number 5 for the day.
The day was great all around and Larissa was thrilled with how well the event was organized.
The 50/50 was also won by Larissa which made a fantastic day even better. Rider was surprised at her win, because as he said; “She has never won anything like that, never ever.”
It was a pleasure being able to get such great insight from Rider, who in addition to loving to fish, is also very active in gymnastics and competitive Ukrainian dance, he plays the guitar and wants to be a DJ.
I had to ask this up-and -coming master angler what his favourite fish was – his answer, quick simply was “Pickled fish, the kind my Grampa makes.”
Good work Grampa!
PHOTO CAPTION: The big dump of snow we got last week required effort from the Healthy Lake Committee volunteers to clear space for the youth anglers and their assistants to compete for some great prizes. The weather on the day of the derby was fantastic and contributed to an excellent event. PHOTO BY SUZANNE PADDOCK
