our 27th annual fishing derby

Over and done with for another year. I can't believe that Pork has now competed in his first ever fishing derby. Or that Peanut and SweetPea got to enjoy another year. I would like to say that Pickle enjoyed himself but I think that he spent more time walking around with a buddy than he did fishing (and this was his last year being able to compete). Punk... well, he decided, once again, to remain at his dad's than come and join us. So it was his loss.

No big winners in our house hold this year. Didn't see anyone break Peanut's record from three years ago but they had some nice sized fish on the board. I was a little disappointed to find out AFTER the derby that any fish turned in got an angler certificate. Had I known that, I would have let the girls turn in their small fish.

SweetPea with her hand-caught fish

That's right, both my girls caught a fish! Peanut caught hers with her pole and some bait while SweetPea caught an injured fish with her bare hands lol. Pork tried fishing a bit but found it better to just beat the water with his rod and hope for the best. The best turning out to be hooking his sister (we took off his hook after that and just let him continue to attempt to beat the fish into submission).

Our little friend that came fishing with us, C, didn't managed to hook a fish either but he DID end up winning one of the door prizes. I think that that brightened his day since he was a bit bummed over his streak of luck.

We missed last year's derby due to SweetPea's soccer pictures and boy had things changed! For one, there wasn't a casting challenge anymore. For two, the pond wasn't packed to the gills the way that it normally always was. Our group caught less this year than any other year as well, even though there were less people there. Maybe it was the liverwurst we attempted to use as bait... Going to have to remember to stick with the hot dogs next year.