Hundreds of children and their families lined the banks of Little River and the pond at Jeffers’ Bend Environmental Center Saturday for Take Kids Fishing Day.
Little fisher-kids cast their lines in the hope of catching Big Jeff—the elusive, extra-large catfish—and Mitchell Fort says there were several catfish reeled in that were around 24 inches long, so it’s very likely Big Jeff was caught. Organizer Diane Croney-Turner says they had around 280 children registered for the event the day of, and after counting pre-registrations and parents, they had a sizable crowd.
She says she saw many smiling faces, along with many successful catches.
Unfortunately, despite several peoples’ best efforts, the tagged fish that would have won someone a prize of $100 remained uncaught during the event, to the organizers’ knowledge. People were able to either keep the fish they caught, or toss them back for next year.
Awards were given out at the end of the day to those who caught the largest and smallest fish, to the winners of the casting and reeling competitions, and many more prizes were given out to participants.
