fishing derby

Return to the Trout Lake Fish Education Day

Today my family and I returned to Trout Lake for the annual fishing derby and fish education day. Unlike last year, we arrived on time and came prepared with an eager 4-year-old and appropriate fishing gear. The trout were plentiful and Siena caught her limit of four fish. We are all looking forward to dinner tonight when I prepare fresh trout sauteed in garlic butter and olive oil.

Last year, Siena required a great deal of supervision and encouragement. This year she was engaged, patient and successfully landed two fish by herself. The other two required my assistance, but we got the job done nonetheless. After we were satisfied with our successful fishing expedition, we took Siena to a nearby playground where I excitedly called my dad to share my daughter’s accomplishment. He quickly reminded me of our Tahoe Trout Farm trip when I was 8 years old, asking if Siena caught any “flying fish”. To this day, he still enjoys teasing me about the hasty and haphazard manner in which I landed my trout. While my father expected me to “play the fish” as a prerequisite for thorough enjoyment of trout fishing, I fortunately had no expectation for Siena. In fact, I believe the two trout I helped my daughter catch today could easily be described as “flying fish”.

Every year around Father’s Day, the US Forest Service organizes a fishing derby at a park in Trout Lake, WA. The creek that flows through the park is screened off and stocked with rainbow trout, after which the community is invited to catch and cook fish, participate in various kid-centric activities and learn about the forest service and fishing in general. This was an excellent opportunity for a family adventure and our second year attending this event. Unfortunately we were unable to arrive until most of the families had left the event. The forest service had closed their displays and the finger-painting tent and bouncy house had both been taken down. But this didn’t disappoint us since we were there to fish. We arrived at the creek and discovered that most of the fish still remained, along with the make-shift fishing poles constructed out of tree branches. We grabbed a fishing pole, baited our hook and made our first cast. I stood behind my daughter and patiently instructed her on how to strategically cast the line upstream, allowing the current to bring the worm to the fish. She was more focused on asserting her desire to hold the fishing-stick herself since she was a big girl. This continued until we hooked our first fish, but he got away. This cycle repeated a few more times until we landed our first trout. She immediately wanted to pick it up and hold it just before she asked when we were going to eat it. By the end of the day we caught our limit and I cleaned our catch while Siena jumped on our friend’s trampoline. The fish are currently in our freezer and I’m sure they’ll make a delicious dinner Sunday evening.