Murder on the Orient express (La Mirada kids catfish derby)

[etucker1959]

Disclaimer: We are professionals so your results may vary! lol

To be honest the fishing was kinda tough for a lot of people. (the fix was in!) I've been fishing that lake since they put water in it in 1971. So I know all the spots, but what location they pick to stock the fish makes certain spots better then others. The reason why is because a good percentage of the fish will not travel that far from where they are stocked. The best way to stock any lake is to stock in 2 or 3 different places so everyone has an equal chance at the fish. Since they don't do that, the proper thing to do is camp out on Friday and see where the truck dumps the fish in. Since I'm like most people and have to work, I couldn't do that. So I picked the best spot in the lake, regardless of where they stocked. (the fish always seem to swim there any way) By pure dumb luck they stocked right next to that spot. (we were gold!) If you're a conspiracy kinda person, they stocked in that spot for a particular reason. (all 1900 pounds went into the same spot)

Now I didn't know that Friday night but I still had a solid plan. I arrived at the pond at 5:30 am to get the best spot I could. My group of children that I was going to entertain didn't arrive till 7:30 am. 2 girls and 1 boy ages 4, 6 and 6 and none of them every went fishing before. (boy did they get lucky) Fortunately most people who got to the pond earlier then I did, set up in the middle of the lake. Just like in the Indiana Jones movie the Last Crusade. (they picked badly!) lol Since I did a fair amount of fishing in there last month. (I knew what I was facing in the way of the thick grass everywhere) So the plan was to fly line all of our baits. Shrimp dipped in Garlic and big chunks of Bonito. I'll make a confession, "I never fished in an actual kids derby before." So I knew it was going to be good but not knowing how good!

On to the fishing!

We started off fishing with both Shrimp and Bonito. But our first 3 fish that bit the Bonito fell off the hook. So we fished all 3 poles with Shrimp and they stayed on the hook really well. To say we stayed busy the first 3 hours of the derby was an understatement! Since the kids were so small, we had to help hold the rods as the kids reeled the fish in. Net the fish, take a picture of the fish and then start over again is a little tiring. I never sat down for 4 hours straight. I ended up very tired, but very happy to be able to show the kids a great time. The kids cracked me up! They said several times, it's been 4 minutes and we haven't hooked another fish yet! Then we usually did. (what little do they know) Fortunately we were able to keep our spot from being invaded by Pirates! We kept our spot reasonable in size and let all of our fish go. The people to the right of us got zonked by catfish crazed adults. The reason why was because they were pulling a bunch of crap themselves. One Adult was fishing alone and 1 kid was keeping everything he caught. (well over his limit) So I guess there is no honor among thieves! lol We C&R everything we caught and only fished 1 rod per child. So we could have tried to catch more but 25 catfish is enough for 3 kids any way!

Thanks for reading our story. I really don't have that much desire to go catch some more for myself tomorrow. But I'll probably still go for a little while, because I know where to look! lol