Kids Nail Bass, Bluegill And Catfish At Future-Pro Folsom Event   By: Dan Bacher August 27, 2007 More Articles by Dan

Water skiers and personal watercraft enthusiasts dominate the waters of Folsom Lake during July, but the hordes of recreational boaters and swimmers didn’t stop young anglers from catching plenty of black bass, catfish, bluegill and even trout during the recent Future-Pro “Take-A-Kid Fishing” event at Folsom Lake.

A total of 125 kids along with a host of parents and friends came out in big numbers to make the event, based at the Granite Bay launch ramp to remember on July 21. The focus of the event was getting kids involved in fishing, but the young folks were also able to compete in two divisions – a bank fishing division for the one biggest bass, catfish or bluegill and a boating division for the one largest black bass.

“We have to get the kids involved in fishing at an early age,” said Vince Harris, tournament director of the Future-Pro Tour. “It would be a very good thing is more parents would spend time fishing with their kids.”

Although summer is not known as a time for catching trophy bass at Folsom, that didn’t stop fifteen-year old-Cameron Jeter from catching a fat, healthy 9.19 lb. largemouth bass during the derby, easily winning first place in the boater division. The lucky angler was fishing a wacky-rigged Yamamoto Senko with bass pro Paul Parker when he hooked the bass.

Nathaniel St. Clair caught the second largest fish in the boater’s category, a 5.78 lb. largemouth.

All of the fish taken by boaters were kept in live wells and released back into the lake. The event produced a quality mixture of spotted, largemouth and smallmouth bass. Shayla Poindexter and another young angler also caught and released two hefty channel catfish, though these fish weren’t eligible in the competition.

Shore anglers caught a surprising number of largemouth and spotted bass and bluegill from a variety of locations around the lake, although they didn’t nail any catfish. The shore fishing this July was a dramatic improvement from the tough fishing that bank anglers experienced in last year’s event.

Lucky Kyle Colin, who caught the largest bass in the bank fishing division, won a wakeboard/boots combo courtesy of Cope & McPhetres Marine (valued at $700). He nailed the fish by tossing out a plastic worm in the South Fork.

Six-year-old Evelyn Espinoza of Sacramento landed the largest bluegill, a .58 lb. beauty, while bank fishing with nightcrawlers at Beak’s Bite with her aunt, Margaret Espinoza. Fishing with them were Gloria Cooley of Sacramento and Sophia Perkins of Sacramento. The group nailed a total of 7 bluegill.

Other successful shore anglers include Jordan Markhan, who bagged a 1.25 lb. largemouth and another keeper bass, and Josiah McDougle, who landed a 1.59 lb. largemouth.

The kids were entertained by Radio Disney, participated in the Casting Kids competition, grabbed a bunch of free "stuff" provided by West Marine, and all walked away with free Berkley rods/reel combos, terminal tackle, premium Plano tackle boxes, participation ribbons, and Extra value meal coupons provided by McDonalds. Megan Johnson won a beautiful cross-county style bicycle in the big raffle held during the awards ceremony.

Sponsors of the event include: Radio Disney, McDonalds, West Marine, Plano, Berkley, Alan Fong and the crew at the Fishermen's Warehouse, Hydrate 2o, C&C Marine of Citrus Heights/Modesto, the Sacramento Asian Chamber of Commerce, Shasta Tackle Co, Battery Systems, People's Folsom Lake Chrysler/Jeep/Hyundai, The Fish Sniffer, 3-Fold Communications, Cope McPheteres Marine, The Loan Source, Basin Bassmasters and The B.A.S.S Federation.

Ranger pro's Mike Tuck and Lewis Milligan assisted bank division kids with their rigging and Kent Brown of Ultimate Bass Radio provided promotional support. Future Pro also hosted seminars for the kids at the Fishermen's Warehouse in Rocklin from 4-7pm on Friday.

The entry fee for the event, opens to kids 15 and under, was $35.00 per child. There were two age divisions, 3-10 and 11-15.

For more information about next year’s event, call 916-768-0938 or log on to www.futureprotour.net      

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