The Fishing Derby

I have been to only one Fishing Derby in my life. It was more commotion than I like with my fishing, but it wasn't all bad...

The first week of July, 1994, my wife was away with the kids - off to Ontario, visiting her family. Our good friends, Chuck and Debbie Taylor, had plans to attend a Saturday craft show as vendors. Would I babysit their 10 year-old son, Clay?
As long as he didn't mind going fishing, I agreed.

The day before our fishing excursion, I had to travel to Bridgewater. Passing by the Italy Cross Fire Hall, I noticed a large sign out front, heralding tomorrow's Fishing Derby. On a whim, I wheeled into the graveled parking lot and entered the fire hall. In a few minutes, I was back in my truck with two "Italy Cross, Middlewood & District Fire Department WHITE PERCH FISHING DERBY" ball caps.

Saturday morning at 6 AM, I picked up a sleepy Clay. He had been too excited about our trip to get much shut-eye. I had spent some of the previous evening getting 'geared up', and asked Clay to help me go over our list of equipment:

"Canoe?" "Check."
"Paddles?" Check."
"Lifejackets?" "Check."
"Rods and reels?" "Check."
"Flies?" "Check."
"Balloons?" "Check."
"Uh, Mr. Phrump, why do we need balloons?"

I didn't know much about White Perch, but I'd caught a few. I knew they fought like hell for the first minute - you'd swear it was a bigger fish than what would surface. I thought they were schooling fish - but I wasn't sure. I needed more information.

My idea, in the name of science, was to release the first White Perch we caught, with a slight modification - a small balloon, tethered to its back. Clay blew up a bright yellow one, the size of his fist. I tied it to about 6 feet of 2 lb. test tippet, and hooked it lightly through the skin behind the dorsal fin with a #16 hook. Now, we could test my hypothesis. If White Perch lived in schools, we should be able to observe the motion of the balloon around the lake and know from that, where the fish would be found.

It worked like a charm! We caught and released more than 20 White Perch that day - most of them on a weighted Black and Yellow Marabou fly. By the time we weighed in, Clay had five fish, totaling 925 grams in the live well. After releasing the fish, we had time to eat, then waited around to hear the results.

Clay's catch was good enough for a Junior First Place finish! He won a fly rod-and-reel combo, some Coca-Cola products, and a trophy. When I dropped him off at the house, Clay showed his folks the loot he'd won, and proclaimed it the best day - ever!

Good Luck and Good Fishin'!
-Random Phrump