Hooking Small Fry : 450 Little Ones Line Up for Fishing Derby Fun

Eight-year-old Alan Sebastian of Villa Park grimaced as he baited his first fish hook ever and ordered the earthworm to “stop squirming. Come back here!”

But a few moments later, he was ready to start casting for catfish at Irvine Lake as part of a massive fishing derby Wednesday organized by the recreation departments of Santa Ana, Orange, Fullerton, Placentia and Yorba Linda and Irvine Lake, a recreational fishing club.

Alan summed up the baiting experience in a word: “Yuck.” Still, he announced that fishing was fun as he flung his hook into the water with a two-handed cast and hunkered down on the sand to await his first catch.

Not long afterward, he became a true fisherman, telling other young anglers his first story about the one that got away.

More than 450 children between the ages of 5 and 14 participated in the daylong event, which also carried an anti-drug message. Several Drug Abuse Resistance Education police officers from the five cities mingled with the children, helping them untangle crossed hooks, lines and sinkers.

Although hundreds of children crowded the shore to cast their lines--or possibly because of that--few netted any fish. The predominant catch of the day was water plants.

“I thought that I would catch something, but there’s so many people that the lines keep getting crossed,” said 10-year-old Megan Humburg of Fullerton.

A light rain fell throughout the day, but few of the children, most wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts, seemed to mind. Just before the competition began, children watched as the lake was stocked with 3,000 pounds of channel catfish, most almost 2 feet long.

“They’re just flopping all over the place,” said Colleen Cantwell, 12, of Yorba Linda. “I’ve never caught one here,” she added, but this time she thought she might.

In the end, only seven fish had been caught, four of them by the Fullerton team which took home a trophy.

David Wen, 12, of Orange caught a fish on his first-ever cast, a 7-inch green carp.

“I just cast it out and felt a bite right away. It felt really good to feel it tug. But it didn’t put up much of a fight,” he said.

His 9-year-old sister, Dianne, also landed one of the few catches of the day, a tiny, 2-inch carp that made her brother’s look huge. It was too small to count in the contest.

Still, Steve Miller, general manager of Irvine Lake, called the event “a dynamite success. The kids loved it. I know they had a good time; that was unanimous.” He estimated that two-thirds of the children there had never fished before and said that “whether they catch fish or not, (the goal) is to get the kids out there for the first time.”

Maureen Flynn, a Fullerton police officer and DARE representative, said that events such as the derby help steer youngsters in the right direction.

“These kids will go back home and tell their families what a good time they had and maybe the family will come out later. We try to reinforce the types of activities that kids can get involved in lieu of gangs or drugs,” she said “We try to give them self-esteem so they don’t have to resort to that kind of lifestyle.”

Aaron Thompson, 13, of Orange said he also thinks the events help children avoid drugs.

“It gets their minds on other things besides drugs. It gets them involved with activities that have nothing to do with bad stuff.”