Fishing Day an annual treat

By Ross Boissoneau

Sun contributor

For hundreds of youngsters around Leelanau County—and even more so those no longer quite so young—the annual Kids Fishing Day at Veronica Valley is a special event. Since 2004, volunteers have stocked fish, welcomed kids, helped them bait their hooks, and watched bobbers disappear beneath the water, then reappear with a wriggling bluegill on the end of the line.

Alan Campbell, Chair of the Kids Fishing Day Committee for the Leelanau County Parks and Recreation Commission, says he anticipates this year’s event will be as strong or stronger than past years. “We had 600 (attendees) previously. We had 1,000 last year. It was no problem, everyone fit in,” he says.

That’s right, even with that many people, there’s plenty of room. Campbell says the fishing pond’s unique configuration with many “fingers” provides lots of places for kids to cast a line. There are plenty of fish as well: Volunteers stock the ponds at Veronica Valley Park with 3,500 adult bluegills. This year’s Kids Fishing Day takes place Sunday, June 22, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is no license required.

The largest such event in the state, Leelanau’s Kids Fishing Day got its official start in 2004 at Joe Vlack Memorial Park in Cedar, before moving to Veronica Valley the next year. Campbell has been in charge of the event the last several years, following the death of founder Pete Taylor.

Since its start 21 years ago, it has helped thousands of kids learn to fish, and maybe even learn to love to fish. “In Leelanau there’s not really a place for kids to fish,” says Campbell. If you don’t live on a lake or have a boat, there aren’t any ponds where a kid can just cast a line and wait for the bobber to get pulled beneath the surface.

And if the youngsters aren’t into fishing? No worries. There are other activities. Kids can enjoy free hot dogs, courtesy of Hansen Foods of Suttons Bay. Jim Kacin has collected his annual assortment of turtles, frogs, salamanders and other amphibians and will have them on hand for kids to get acquainted with, and even touch if they’re brave enough. Campbell is quick to note Kacin has a permit to gather the animals, which are returned to the wild after the event.

Biologists Dan May of the Grand Traverse Band and Heather Hettinger of the Department of Natural Resources will be on hand, sharing their knowledge about fish, fishing and the environment. There’s even a fish-painting station, which doesn’t involve actually coloring finny friends, but using molds of fish and pressing paint onto cloth, to create what Campbell calls fish flags.

Still, it’s the fishing that’s the hallmark of Kids Fishing Day. Celebrated cane rod maker Bob Summers will help show kids how to fish. Which can come in handy, as Campbell says many of those who participate have never fished before, or even eaten fresh fish. “A lot of kids have never eaten anything they’ve caught. My son does a quick filleting lesson. It’s not farm to table, it’s pond to table.”