Fishing In The City Concludes Winter Season With Florin Creek Park Event   By: Dan Bacher April 6, 2006 More Articles by Dan

The Department of Fish and Game’s Fishing in the City concluded its winter trout-planting season with a special kids-only fishing day at Florin Creek Park in south Sacramento on Saturday, March 11.

Over 100 people, including 60 young anglers under 16 years old, participated in the derby. The 60 anglers caught 85 rainbow trout ranging from 8-1/2 to 14-1/2 inches, according to Eric Boor, Recreation Supervisor of Special Events for the Southgate Recreation and Park District.

The event began at 8:30 a.m. with cloudy and very cool weather, more like late December or early January than March. Volunteers from the event’s sponsors, the park district, the Parkway Estates Neighborhood Association and the Department of Fish, helped the young anglers bait their hooks and cast them out into the park pond. The DFG stocked 280 pounds of trout in the lake to make sure that the anglers had a great chance of catching fish.

Eight-year-old Jasmin Martinez caught the first fish of the day, a 12 inch rainbow, while fishing Power Bait with her mom, Guadalupe Torres. The three anglers ended up with near-limits of rainbows, going home with a bucketful of tasty rainbows for a fish fry.

Other anglers soon started catching fish right and left. “It was one of the best fish catching days that we had all season in the Fishing in the City program,” said Don Paganelli, an experienced fishing guide who works with Fishing in the City. “The Calaveras Fish farm started planting the fish about an hour before the event started. The fish were really active, boiling and jumping, when the young anglers started fishing. The fish were really biting, maybe because of the unusually cold weather.”

I can attest to the excellent fishing. One of the myths is that anglers immediately tear up trout after trout are planted in a lake or pond.

Actually, the opposite is often true. I have been at a bunch of derbies in recent years at urban lakes where fishing has been very slow, in spite of plants of big loads of rainbows. Sometimes the fish, for whatever reason, don’t want to bite.

When I got there, bobbers were already going down under the water, kids were excitedly yelling, and Don Paganelli and other adults helped the anglers get their fish and measure them. Every fish was measured and the number of fish each angler took was counted.

Troy Hawley and Ray Gonzalez each caught their limit of five rainbow trout, while quite a few other anglers landed 2 to 3 trout each.

Two anglers, 13-year-old Noelle Bonura and 7-year-old Max Sherman, tied for the biggest fish, since they each bagged 14-1/2 inch rainbows. Savannah Torres took “small fish honors” with the 8-1/2 inch rainbow that she landed.

Matt Cisneros and his son, 4-year-old Reynaldo, teamed up to catch a limit of rainbow trout with Power Bait while fishing from the bridge over the pond.

The Hayes family was there in full force, catching their first ever fish. Harvey Hayes landed two trout measuring 13 and 11-1/2 inches, Michael Hayes bagged two rainbows and Stuart Hayes nailed a 12 inch fish.

Other anglers taking home rainbow trout include 11-year-old Kenny Momphrey, 12-year-old David Vasquez and eight-year-old Karvalika Tapa.

Stan Foy, a ranger with the Southgate Recreation and Park District, came up with the concept of the fishing day 12 years ago to create some fishing opportunities in a part of town where many children don’t have the chance to catch fish.

“In the local community, there are a lot of single mothers who don’t know how to fish,” said Foy. “This event gives them and their kids the opportunity to fish in their own backyard. We’ve had up to 150 participants during our previous events. This year’s fishing was tremendous – there have been some years when hardly any fish were caught.”

Eric Boor added, “This is the first year that I was in charge of the fishing day. It was a wonderful experience to see children who had never before caught a fish landing their first ever fish.”

For more information about volunteering with next year’s derby, call (916) 395-0601.

The event was preceded on the previous Saturday by the very popular Annual Fishing Derby at Howe Community Park from 8:00 am-2: 30 pm, sponsored by Fulton El Camino Recreation & Park District. As was the case at the Florin Creek Park event, a lot of young anglers caught their first ever fish.

For example, four-year-old Michael Quesada Jr. and his day, Michael Quesada Sr., caught several rainbow trout . Savannah Bye and Charles Bye of Rio Linda nailed two rainbow trout . Other anglers who caught trout during the event include Marita Ogren, Samantha Padgett, and the daughter-father team of Savannah Bye and Charles Bye of Rio Linda.

For general information on volunteering for next year’s fishing derby, please call Robin or Leea at 927-3802 ext. 119.

Although the trout plants are over for the season, anglers can look forward to the Fishing in the City’s channel catfish planting program in the summer from the free fishing day in June to the free fishing day in September.

Joe Ferreira, coordinator, said the DFG plans to contract out with a private hatchery for 1350 to 1375 pounds of channel cats averaging 1 pound each between the four to five ponds each week. They will plant around 250 pounds at each pond and will conduct clinics, similar to the ones they conduct during the trout season, TBA.

For more information about the Fishing in the City program, call Joe Ferreira at (916) 358-2872.    

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