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Washington Evening Journal
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Kids fish for cash at Gateway
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MARENGO — More than 100 children registered for Gateway Improvement Group’s sixth annual Kids Fishing Tournament in Marengo Saturday.
“It’s a good activity for kids to do with their families,” said Shelly Steele, a Gateway Improvement Group board member.
Chad Madison, Jeff Meier, Greg Ryan, Connor Knapp and Sheila Sayers are also on the Gateway Improvement.
Children, accompanied by their parents, fish at Gateway Lake, and when they catch fish, volunteers drive them to the weighing station where the catch is recorded.
The children release their fish through a tube at the water’s edge and head back to their rods for another attempt at catching a prize-winning fish.
A leader board keeps anglers apprised of who has the biggest fish so far. Children 12 and younger and children 13-18 competed in two divisions for largest perch, bluegill, crappie, bass, walleye and channel flathead catfish.
Prize for the largest in each category was $100, said Steele. Every registered angler received a door prize, and a free meal was provided for the children and their parents.
All prizes were donated, said Steele.
The event is always on Iowa’s free-fishing weekend the first week of June.
Crraig York, of Bear Creek Trading Post, supplied free bait, Steele said.
“I think it’s great,” said T.J. Hansen who watched his sons Dallas and Beau fish. Hansen takes the boys fishing every weekend at a pond where the fish are abundant. They catch a fish every time they cast, he said.
That wasn’t the case Saturday in Marengo. The waiting game is new to them, Hansen said.
Angela Hawkins, of Marengo, sat nearby as her son, Steven, threw his line in from the shore. “We do it every year,” said Hawkins.
“I like fishing,” Steven said. He didn’t have a fishing mentor. “I kind of taught myself.”
Steven has caught catfish and a couple of bass in the past but wasn’t having much luck Saturday at Gateway Park, he said.
Aiden Carey takes part in the tournament every year because he likes fishing, he said. He usually fishes with his father at a bass pond outside Sigourney, said his mother, Mandy McAllister, of South English.
Aiden catches bass and catfish at the pond, he said, but he wasn’t catching much at Gateway, he said.
Asa Wilson, 12, brought in a 6.2-ounce crappie. He’s fished in the tournament a couple of times before, he said.
“I fish with my grandpa a lot,” said Wilson. “We fish in Waterloo. We like to fish for walleye or trout.
“I like being able to see the bobber go down and the excitement of reeling it in,” said Wilson.
Hannah Daniels, of Ladora, fishes once or twice a month, she said. The 11-year-old usually fishes at Gateway a few times a year, she said, but her family has a farm pond she can fish in as well.
