Area families take to river and lakes

By Dan Larson, Sauk Prairie Eagle

If a bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work, as the old fishing adage suggests, does a bad day of fishing also beat a good day with the family?

For Barneveld's Brad Gordon and his 7-year-old son Trey it doesn't.

"We just came out here to have fun. If you catch a fish, that's just a bonus," said Brad Gordon, who, along with his son, participated in the 8th Annual Take an Adult Fishing Tournament hosted by Wilderness Fish and Game on Aug. 2.

As it turned out, though, the Gordons had a good day of fishing and a good day as a family.

Trey reeled in a 2.95-pound largemouth bass at about 8:15 a.m. while fishing on Lake Wisconsin's Wiegands Bay, and he knew right away that it might win the bass category — one of six categories participants could have fish weighed in.

"I thought that I was going to win," said Trey, who caught the bass with a Topwater lure.

In fact, he won by nearly a pound over the second-place bass caught by the team of Kaleb and Melanie O'Donnell, which weighed 2.07 pounds.

The bass category was the most competitive, as participants weighed the most fish in that field. Panfish, rough-fish and catfish followed, with two participants registering walleyes and only one registering a trout.

More than 70 teams competed in the tournament, which Larry Wipperfurth, the sporting goods manager of Wilderness Fish and Game and one of the tournament's coordinators, said is intended to get kids involved in fishing.

"The biggest thing is to get some recruitment back into the sport," he said. "A lot of times people have the desire to get out fishing but don't do it, so this gives them a reason."

One family that hasn't needed a reason is the Alts.

Greg Alt and his wife Tammy, of Plain, have fished in the tournament with at least one of their kids — Travis, Nathan or Nicole — since its second year in 2002, and this year Tammy's father, Steve Meise, got involved.

And they've had quite a bit of luck over the years. Travis, 15, took first in the bass category in 2002 and second in 2005. He took second in the northern pike category in 2004 and 2005.

Nathan and Nicole, 11-year-old twins, aren't far behind. Nathan took first in the rough-fish category in 2004 and first in the bass category last year, and Nicole took first in the bass category in 2006 and second in the category last year.

The Alts didn't fare as well this year, but Nathan still managed to catch the second-place catfish at 5.74 pounds while fishing on the Wisconsin River near Spring Green with his parents.

"I think it was just a bad day," said Greg Alt, admitting that he wanted to check the fishing report before the tournament but didn't get a chance.

Nicole, who fished on White Mound Lake with Meise, agreed.

"No one there was catching anything. The only thing was bluegills," she told her dad after the tournament.

Despite what he deemed "the worst day we've ever had in the tournament," Greg Alt found a different reason to consider the day a success.

"It was the best weather though," he said of the sunny but not-too-humid day that gave all the participants a reason — no matter how bad their fishing luck was — to remember the spirit of the tournament: Fishing with the family.

2008 TAKE AN ADULT FISHING TOURNAMENT

BASS	WEIGHT (POUNDS)
1. Trey Gordon	2.95
2. Kaleb & Melanie O'Donnell	2.07
WALLEYE
1. Alex & Jack Mabis	1.00
1. Kate Fries	1.00
TROUT
1. Carson Radl	0.36
PANFISH
1. Jeff Blum	0.73
2. Evan Davis	0.69
ROUGH-FISH
1. Abe Rothermann	3.71
2. Daulton Frame	2.74
CATFISH
1. Kate Fries	6.4
2. Nathan Alt	5.74