A Fishing Derby at our RV Campground
June 25, 2005: The 8th Annual Black Bird Rainbow $5000 Fishing Derby at our RV campground. All day Saturday was lots of activity, the lake was full of fishing boats as well as people on the shoreline looking for the biggest fish.
Black Bird is an interesting sporting goods store in Medford. Interesting because it is a cross between a discount variety, sporting goods,
hardware and clothing store. They also have this huge black bird in front of their store to draw attention and assure the customer that they've found the "Black Bird".
The level of excitement at the lake on this Saturday was high. The parking lot was overflowing onto a grassy field with fishermen arriving at 4:30am.
The fisherman at the right is getting his tags to measure and weigh his fish for the contest.
Prizes were in five categories, youth 14-17, women 18-40, women over 41, Men 18-40 and men over 41. $500 was awarded to the longest fish in each category, $225 for the second longest down to $50 for the fifth longest. The entry fee was $12 with the first 500 entries getting a free T shirt.
 |
The black bird helps the judges measure the length of the fish. Black bird was handing out prizes all day long to those entrants in boats and wandering around the judging stations. |
|---|
 |
The hero of the day was six year old Dawson who caught the "fish of the decade". Dawson has been fishing for two years and did not get any help in casting then landing the largest fish. Did did not help. Dawson landed this 8lb 13 oz, 28" trout using 6 lb line. |
|---|
| Since Dawson was too young for the money prize he got prizes, note the Howard Prairie Resort T-shirt and new fishing rod. Dawson plans to have his "fish of the decade" mounted. |  |
|---|
 |
For those wondering what that |
 |
|---|
|
|---|