Magda Konieczna

Anglers cast for prize bass

appeared in The Record July 11, 2005

Asked about the best fishing spot in the Grand River, Nelson Murakami looked a bit surprised.

"Fisherman's secret," he answered, chuckling.

Even so, the annual Grand River Bass Derby this past weekend was a good opportunity for rookies to try out the sport, said Murakami, the owner of Natural Sports in Kitchener. This was especially the case because the derby always coincides with Ontario's Family Fishing Weekend, when people can cast their lines without a licence.

About 400 anglers turned up for the derby, fishing from the Belwood dam near Fergus to the Paris dam, hoping they might stumble upon the secret of catching a winning fish.

And it was quite a competition. Kitchener's John Kip caught the winner, which measured 19 and 9/16 inches, near Winterbourne. Kyle MacLeod won the junior category with a bass that came in at 18 and 7/16 inches, caught in Cambridge.

In a sport where size is all that matters, what does it really take to catch the biggest fish?

Two brothers, Ed and Reiner Sander, were fishing under the railway bridge where Highway 7 crosses the Grand River in Kitchener. Ed had won first prize, an aluminum boat and trailer, in the 1987 derby.

Yesterday, though, he was fishing from shore.

"The boat's in there somewhere," he said, pointing at the river.

The brothers said their location, where trains occasionally scare off the fish, was not optimal for bass.

"We were at Kaufman Flats before, but it was getting hot," Ed said. "This is nice and private. "Whether I catch a fish or not, it's nice to be out on a beautiful day. But I do try my best. I did win it once."

But does he think he has any chance to win again? By noon, it's too late in the day, he said.

"You've got to go early in the morning," Ed said.

"No, they're starting to bite now," Reiner countered. "(Ed) catches them in the morning. I catch them in the afternoon.

"Once we were in a boat together. We had the same thing on our lines, and he was catching them and I was not. You've got to get the feeling into the lure."

Reiner's advice is to find what works and stick with it.

"But then, everywhere you go is different," he added.

Either way, this year's derby, held by the Optimist Club of Stanley Park, was a success, Murakami said. The anglers, depending on their age, paid up to $20 to enter. The proceeds will go to maintain and improve the Stanley Park Optimist Natural Area, a portion of the Walter Bean Trail along the Grand River.

"We do it just to put money back in the river," Fred Wasielewski said as his wife brought in a fish that measured just under 16 inches.

First prize was $2,000, and other prizes included fishing packages and rods. Draw prizes included a pontoon boat.

The derby helps the Ministry of Natural Resources determine the health of the Grand River fish population. The fish brought in during the derby are the most important fish in the river, because bigger fish have more offspring, according to ministry fisheries specialist Trevor Friesen.

Each bass is marked before it is released back into the river -- in the same area where it was caught. This helps the ministry determine what portion of the fish population is caught each year.

If most of the fish being caught are already tagged it would mean a low population. But the small number of marked fish caught at the derby indicates a large population in the Grand, Friesen said.

"Generally, we catch less than 10 per cent" of the fish in the river, Friesen said. "This tells us there's lots of healthy fish in the river."