Third annual Take a Kid Fishing event draws "capacity" crowd

Saturday’s weather was made to order for the Waseca Lakes Association’s Take a Kid Fishing event at the Clear Lake fishing pier on Saturday, June 6. The wind was even nice enough to back off a little long enough to give plenty of prizes away and hopefully allow young anglers to take a few memories home. The event drew more than 130 participants who caught and released many fish, mostly sunnies.

 

Despite a bit of green algae in the water, young anglers could still see the fish below them. As his mother, Alyssa, held his fish for him to see, young Brantley Swanson couldn’t help observing, “I caught it.” They were fishing from the Clear Lake Pier. He wasn’t shy, just squeamish when it came to taking the fish off the hook. His mother had no problem and within a minute Brantley was back to fishing with a grin on his face.

 

Maggie Hunt was fishing from the beach; her daughter Lauren caught her fish and posed for a photo. Maggie said, “Her dad was Justin Hunt, a deputy for Rice County that passed away in 2021.” They seemed to be enjoying the day, as were many other anglers since the fish were taking hooks tossed in from both the shore and the pier. 

 

Stacy Schroeder, from the Discover Waseca Tourism Board said, “This is so great, the Parks and Recreation guys were out here every day for the last three days grooming and cleaning. They really did a great job this year.” She was surrounded by Waseca County royalty, Miss Waseca County Sleigh and Cutter, Jasmin Kotek. Miss Owatonna Maura Erickson and Miss Owatonna Teen Linden Aarsvold. Continued Schroeder, “We were given over a hundred tackle boxes from both “Fishing for Life,” and “Northland Fish and Tackle” and those were out by 11 a.m.”

 

Waseca fire chief Jason Forshee commented, “We’re just here to help the kids have a good time. We had those 212 Waseca drinks, the blue ones, those were gone pretty quick. From the fire department it’s just me here, everyone else was busy. Our relief organization donated cash and I’m glad they did, we got a really good crowd here today.”  

 

Waseca High School teacher Jake Janike attended with his wife Stephanie and daughter Harper. They had fishing gear spread around them on the slight incline overlooking Clear Lake, just a step or two under the shade of oaks. Jake came back from the rocky shore to the girls sitting in the grass and rebaited his hook, they took a moment to pose for a photo. Jake said, “Harper won both a new fishing rod and a tackle box, we’re very happy with that.”