WHITEHALL — The White Lake Area Sportfishing Association once again drew a sizable crowd to Goodrich Park for the organization’s annual Kid’s Fishing Contest, which took place Saturday.
The competition begins bright and early at 7 a.m., allowing kids ample time until weigh-in closes at noon to hook a prize-winner. Participants are split into categories of six based on gender and age group - girls and boys ages 3-6, 7-10, and 11-16 - and the 10 biggest fish in each category award their young sportfisher with a new pole. Every participant, regardless of their bounty, receives a goody bag of fishing bait and equipment to serve them throughout the rest of the year.
Bait and prizes for the event were provided by Mitch Johnson of Johnson’s Great Outdoors in Montague, who are just one of several avid sponsors for the event. For White River Tackle, this is their 16th year of contributing between $1,000 and $1,500 dollars to this event. Owner Doug VanderWater likewise assists in procuring an extra $3,000 contribution from the Muskegon Sportfishing Association, ensuring the event continues to foster, as VanderWater considers it, the “future of our beloved sport.”
Weigh-in began at 10 a.m. and was already off to the races with several submissions of fish weighing well over 1,000 grams. Many of these heavyweight specimens were bass or dogfish (also known as bowfins), such as Kyler’s 1,950-gram big mouth bass and Elease’s 2,675-gram “St. Bernard dog” dogfish, which netted the participants third and fourth place respectively.
For some kids, it took until the 11th hour to catch a suitable fish. For Travis, age 10, his bucket was empty with an hour left in the event, though Travis claimed he caught a catfish but let it go all in the span of a few minutes while his dad was away from their fishing spot. Thankfully, Travis’ fish tale became a reality when he hooked a two-pound (1,285-gram) bass before noon.
Sisters Madison (6) and Alana (11) both placed in their categories, Madison with a bluegill and Alana with a rock bass. Alana had competed in the competition in previous years with friends, but both sisters teamed up this year after a family friend reminded their mother of the event. The family friend in question echoed a popular sentiment for many of the adults who brought their young sportfishers along, “If the weather’s nice, it’s something to do!”
Kinsley, age 9, won second place amongst the girls 7-10 with her white suckerfish, a fish so rare to the tournament, it was the first time many of the WLASA volunteers had seen one at weigh-in. Kinsley comes from a family of fishers, and has participated in the competition for a couple years now.
Twelve-year-old Daniel has also competed previously, and placed in his age group last year. For Daniel, however, the tournament is secondary to his enjoyment of the sport. Said his mother, “Any chance he gets to fish, he takes it,” before joking that Daniel would probably continue fishing well after the competition ended.
WLASA organizers estimated that about 150 children attended, many with several family members in tow, and all were treated to a lunch of pizza and Gatorade provided by the association. After food was served, the 60 winners were called to the front to receive their prizes.
The steady numbers brought in each year through the competition not only serves the future success of the event and the sport, but the future success of White Lake.
Explained WLASA organizers, “We do these things to make sure we maintain access to White Lake.”
The “checkered past” of White Lake’s ecology and the decades of effort to improve it go hand in hand with the competition. It's no coincidence that 2014, the year the competition exploded in popularity, is also the year that White Lake was delisted as a Great Lakes Area of Concern.
Don Ingalls, WLASA president, said, “[White Lake’s] improved so that we can keep fishing, and we’re going to keep it that way.”
