Malta Walleyes, FWP take local students fishing

The anglers at the 11th Annual Take a Kid Fishing day at Nelson Reservoir might have been colder than last year, but they all seemed happier with how the fish were biting.

“They are actually catching some fish today,” Malta Walleye’s Unlimited President John Demarais told the PCN. All told, Demarais estimated that a total of 70 students took to the ice for the event from Dodson, Malta Elementary and Middle School and the East Malta Colony, casting their lines from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., taking a break around noon for hotdogs and whatnot — Pete Dalby again manning the barbeque. The Malta Walleyes were joined at Nelson on the day by members of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP employees also visited area schools to assist in science classes prior to the day’s fishing field trip.)

Jacob Hofer, 10, said he was attending the event for the second year in a row and said that he hadn’t any luck catching anything in either year, but said the hot dogs were delicious and the day was a success regardless of the fishing.

“I fish in the summer a lot and I catch fish then,” Hofer said. “It was about a five pounder and I ate it with French Fries.”

Malta Middles School’s Naylene Winkle, like Hofer, hadn’t caught anything but said that the day’s trip was the first time she had ever fished, adding that she hopes to do it more in the future. Winkle said she also enjoyed the science classes with the FWP employee and felt she had learned a lot about different types of fish.

“My favorite fish is a sturgeon because they are interesting and not very common,” she said.

Katy Moore, also of Malta Middle School, caught her first fish at about 11 a.m. and named him “Fred." She said she has caught many fish in her days — the biggest, a bass coming out of the Carlsbad River in New Mexico — and she added she was looking forward to dissecting Fred in Mr. Twiggs’ science class.

“This is my first time ice fishing and it is cold,” she said. “If I was in school right now, I’d be in study hall so I would rather be here.”

Dodson’s Treyten Stiffarm, a seventh grade student, was also making a return trip to the Take a Kid Fishing and, unfortunately, like 2016, 2017 was proving to be a stinker.

“I haven’t caught anything this year either,” he said. Stiffarm agreed with Moore that he would rather be fishing than in school and admitted that he had at least got some bites this year. He said the biggest fish he had ever caught, as far as he could remember, was a 7-inch perch, but what happened to the fish after he caught it is anybody’s guess.

“I can’t remember what my Mom and Dad did with it,” Stiffarm admitted.

Kanyon Stiles, fresh off his Phillips County Spelling Championship, had already caught two fish on the day when the PCN caught up to him.

“This year is going better for everyone because last year nobody caught anything,” he said. “Last week, my Grandpa (Terry Stiles) caught some Northerns and we have caught like five or six out here today.”