Kids keep fishing day tradition in Carrie Blake Park

By Matthew Nash • April 24, 2024 1:30 am

Lines, lures, bobbers and worms were soaring on Saturday, April 20, thanks to strong winds in Carrie Blake Community Park. Some lines caught enough air to almost go the width of the pond at times.

Organizers of Kids Fishing Day estimate about 350 children 14 and younger fished in the Water Reuse Demonstration Pond.

First-time volunteer Pat Lundin with the North Olympic Peninsula Chapter of Puget Sound Anglers, said children stuck out the high winds and still had a good time.

“It doesn’t seem to have kept the fish from biting,” she said.

Last week, 1,200 rainbow trout from Hurd Creek Fish Hatchery were planted to continue to promote fishing among local children.

On Friday, 19 volunteers helped with a fishing day for Life Skills students, and on Saturday another 38 helped bait hooks, cast lines, hand out poles and clean fish for Kids Fishing Day.

Lundin, an Angler for about five years, said she thinks fishing is a “fabulous hobby” and hopes the event helps inspire children to learn to fish and protect the environment for them.

The annual event is a joint effort between the Anglers, City of Sequim, Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Hurd Creek Hatchery.

Children 14 and younger can continue to fish for free without a license with a two-catch limit per day.

For more about the Puget Sound Anglers-North Olympic Peninsula Chapter, visit psanopc.org and facebook.com/psanopc.

Sequim Gazette photos by Matthew Nash Bud Tweten proudly holds his 4-year-old son Wyatt’s first fish he ever caught on April 20. Wyatt was at Kids Fishing Day with his parents, twin brother, older brother and older sister.

Landon Stubbins, 12, of Enumclaw, waits for a fish from the bridge by the Water Reuse Demonstration Pond. He attended Kids Fishing Day for the first time on a visit to his grandmother Marsha Smith of Sequim.

Naomi Victor, 2-and-a-half, of Port Angeles admires her first caught fish during Kids Fishing Day in Carrie Blake Community Park. Her father Raphael said they’ve tried fishing many times before but this was their first successful day fishing.

Grace Dormer, and Zoei McCullem, both 13 and from Sequim, cast lines out for fish on Kids Fishing Day. The friends said they’ve both attended the event before.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Asher Jacobson, 9, of Sequim finds a good seat near the bridge of the Water Reuse Demonstration Pond during Kids Fishing Day. His sister Teagan, 6, caught a fish earlier after a soccer game, she said. It was the siblings’ first time at the event.

Barry Baker, a volunteer with the North Olympic Peninsula Chapter of Puget Sound Anglers, helps Christian Stevenson, 11, of Port Ludlow, take the hook out of his recently caught fish at Kids Fishing Day. It was Stevenson’s second fish of the day, he said.