Burrell Lake Youth Fishing Derby

The Tri County Trout Club holds a youth fishing derby every year at Burrell Lake Park. This is a great event with food and prizes and really puts the focus on the kids. The lake is a no kill lake and holds bass, bluegill, crappie, and catfish. Last year, my daughter and I had attended and only caught two very small bluegill. So this year, I was determined to increase our odds of catching more fish. I came across a spot on the lake that nobody was at, and three people walked past and told their kids it was a bad spot and too shallow. 30 feet to the left there is a small stream that comes in, 20 feet to the left there is a weed patch, directly to the right there’s a tree in the water, and there is a nice green film on top of the water that extended about 15 feet into the lake from shore. In my mind I see endless good things, a fresh water source, cover to the left, cover to the right, and cover for 15 feet. We caught multiple bluegill, crappie, and missed a large catfish. I picked the spot and tended to the lines, but she did all of the work. All of the work she did paid off as she won 2/4 biggest fish categories. Biggest bluegill and biggest crappie. The catfish we had on snapped our line due to two mistakes that I 100% own. I didn’t check the quality of line as I haven’t fished with a spinning rod in a long time, and the drag was way too tight. She potentially could have had 3/4 categories. The wins were a complete surprise, but I was very proud of her long before we caught the winners. She showed incredible interest and methodically picked where to cast her lines. She showed patience and determination after missing a few hits. This girl has become an amazing fisherwoman and a young age. We didn’t set out to win anything, all I wanted was for her to have fun. As an added bonus, the winning crappie was caught on one of my black stoneflies under a bobber.