WAUCONDA - Sunny weather made for slower fishing this year at the Lions Club International’s 14th annual fishing derby at Bangs Lake in Wauconda on Sept. 7.
“We had awesome, sunny weather,” organizer Randy Hooper said. “But more cloud cover would have made for better fishing.”
The rules of this fishing tournament have never changed since the event’s start. Each type of fish has a qualifying minimum length and point value based of weight. First-, second-, and third-place prizes are given for most points, while another prize is awarded for heaviest fish. All fish were released into the water after the competition.
Wauconda resident Ken Kenavan, a first-year tournament participant, said he had an anything-goes strategy. Although Kenavan caught fewer fish than expected, he still wants to participate in next year’s competition.
David Kruger of Wauconda – who has not only fished in this competition for more than five years, but also has fished in Bangs Lake for a few decades – said fishing is hard on this Lake.
“When fishing at Bangs Lake, luck helps,” he said.
Scott Koplin and Todd LoSchiavo, winners of the tournament, won a three-day fishing trip at the Keystone Lodge by Cedar Lake in Ontario, Canada. Cedar Lake is known for having some the best smallmouth bass fishing in the country. Hooper said this is the third year the Canadian lodge has donated a trip to their fishing tournament.
Kopoin and LoSchiavo said they used a strategy of trial and error to win the tournament.
“Once we figured out what worked, we stuck with it,” LoSchiavo said.
They both caught four fish, one of which won the award for the largest weight. The weight award was a prize of $110.
“We won our gas money back,” LoSchiavo said, chuckling.
Event participation varies each year, depending on whether people have an open day in their schedule, Hooper said.
“The crowd this year was a bit less than expected from how many calls I got about the derby,” he said.
Although turnout for the event was low, Hooper said, the event made an average amount of money for the Lions Club compared to past fishing derbies – about $200.
“It may sound like a small amount of money,” Hooper added, “but events like this are more about letting people know about our organization.”
Lions Club International – one of the largest community organizations in the world with a network of 1.3 million members from 202 countries – is known for its efforts to reduce blindness.
Hooper plans to notify this year’s derby participants of the competition a month before next year’s tournament.
“Hopefully this will make next year’s derby bigger,” Hooper said.
