By Jessie Kudlak
My name is Jessie. I am 11 years old. I live on Clearwater Lake, near Armstrong in Northwestern Ontario.

One sunny morning in July 2007, my dad, our Lab Charcoal, who never misses a boat ride, and I headed out on the lake to go fishing. I was entered in the Annual Kid’s Fishing Derby.

When we set off, I told Dad to stay in the channel. He passed me my rod. I cast and, not 10 seconds later, I got a bite. It bit again. I started reeling in faster. I knew it was a Northern pike because it started fighting back. I got it close to the boat, but Dad missed it with the net. It dove down into the weeds. I just kept reeling in. It jumped out of the water, into the air, and dove again. The fight was really on.

When I finally got that tired pike near the boat again, my dad scooped it into our very biggest net. When we saw the tail and head hanging over the side of that net, we knew it was HUGE! Dad got it in the boat. It was jumping and flopping all over. We finally got a good hold on it, and just to make sure that it wasn’t in the slot size (27.5 to 35 inches must be put back) my dad measured it. It was forty inches long. We could keep it!

Dad stared at my fish. Finally, he said “We should put it back. It’s a breeder. We’ll catch another one.” He gently revived it. I sadly watched it swim away. Then we started fishing again.

A few minutes later I gave up. I wasn’t having much fun. My Dad had just thrown back the biggest fish I’d ever caught - a trophy fish. When my dad saw that I wasn’t fishing he said “Let’s go back and catch something off of the dock. You only need one to enter.”

When we got home my Mom and sister were waiting. After I told them the story, Mom looked at Dad, kept shaking her head, and said, “What!? You did what Peter? This fish derby is by WEIGHT, the BIGGEST fish wins! And you threw that fish back?” My Dad tried to explain.“It’s by weight? Oh my God! I guess I didn’t read the poster very well. I’m sorry Jessie.”

We still had time before the Derby weigh-in, so my Dad tried to catch a perch off the dock and he actually got one. My parents persuaded me to enter that little fish in the Derby, but Mom continued to shake her head.

We headed into town to weigh the fish. My little perch weighed in at one ounce, quite a difference from my 15+ pound pike that Dad released. Mom would not let it go. She kept going up to bunches of people and telling them the whole story. It was funny. Every time she told someone, she pointed at Dad, and then everyone just looked at him. I told some of my friends too.

When they did announce the winning entries, the biggest fish in my age group was only 12 pounds. That same fish also won the grand prize for the biggest fish in the whole Derby. The prize for my age group was a portable DVD player and the grand prize was a colour TV. I could have won both of them, but my fish was back swimming in the lake.

When we got home that day we all had dinner and everyone was quiet. (My mom does quiet really well). After dinner we had a sauna. That was quiet too! Finally Dad broke the silence and said “Jessie, I’ll put $100 aside so you can buy a portable DVD player, but if it’s one penny more you’ll have to pay the rest.” Mom was trying not to smile. I was babbling. “Thanks. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but thanks Dad I really appreciate it.”

So that’s how My Fishing Derby Loss became a win. I have an awesome portable DVD player, and my big, big Pike will probably breed again.   Submitted By: Catherine Morgan