by Dave Delgado

Guam - The Department of Agriculture's Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources in cooperation with the National Park Service will be hosting their second fishing derby of the year this Saturday at the War in the Pacific National Park in Asan. The fishing derby is a family event that brings the community together while learning the basics of fishing. If you would like to sign up your child call DAWR at 735-3995/6 or 735-4037 to see if there is still some open slots.

Event coordinator Brent Tibbatts said, "We had 40 kids compete in the derby on July 31st and they caught a total of 92 fish. We are taking reservations for this up coming derby on August 14th and so far we have 55 participants reserved and we can take 75 kids for the full derby. We would like to tell the kids that if they would like to sign up to do so as soon as possible because we bay be close to running out of space pretty soon. We anticipate on catch more than the 92 fish on the last derby and once again the kids will be competing in 3 categories, longest fish, most fish and most different kinds of fish. There will be prizes for first, second and third in each of those categories but we will have raffle prizes for all participants for the derby this Saturday as well as food and drinks available as well."

Tibbatts recommends that those families coming out for the fishing derby bring sun block, umbrellas and chairs so that they can relax and enjoy themselves under the sun.

"The kids seem to have a lot of fun with it and it is to teach kids fishing and the basic fishing skills also a little about fish management because this is a catch and release tournament. To teach kids if they catch a baby fish let them go until they grow up to be big enough because when you catch them again you will have a lot more meat for your effort and also it gives the fish a chance to reproduce and produce more babies so that there will be more fish later on to catch.

"We get lots of parents coming down with brothers and sisters maybe who aren't old enough yet to compete because the derby is for 7-12, but then the kids see how much fun it is and we have lots of families who have several kids go through as they become age appropriate to participate in the derby so it's something that the families have a lot of fun doing."