Community pond lures in volunteers and young anglers for maintenance and fishing derby
WINNEMUCCA —The James Kinney Pond, located off of Rinehart Lane, recently received some valuable upgrades just in time for the annual Kid’s Fishing Day, which took place on June 25.
The pond was stocked with fish the first week of June and then again just prior to the derby. Kids up to 11 years were invited to participate in the derby for a chance to win prizes for their catches, according to Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) Biologist, Brad Bauman.
Young anglers had the opportunity to win a brand new bike, donated by the Nevada Chukar Foundation, for the biggest catch of the day, and other prizes were available for the smallest catch as well at the derby. Those that caught a tagged fish also had a chance to receive 25, 50, or 100 dollars. Aiden Gibson scored a brand new bike to take home with him at the derby for his 16 inch Rainbow Trout catch. The event had a large turnout of families and younger fishers, with the weather cooperating and the fish biting all the way up until the event wrapped up around noon.
The other general rules for the derby were simple: participants must be 11 years old and under and accompanied by an adult, no swimming or wading in the pond, throw all trash in the garbage cans, respect the surrounding property, no cleaning fish on the premises, limit three game fish per participant, all fishing should be done by kids, with adults only helping to bait and cast, be careful, and have fun!
Volunteers from the Nevada Muley’s showed up on June 4th to help clear debris, replace dead foliage, clean up garbage and weeds, and put in new shade awnings at the pond. The crew devoted five hours of their Saturday to help preserve and spruce up a place that is special to many of the anglers in the community, as well as those who visit the pond just to admire its serene beauty. Five trailer loads of weeds and garbage were hauled off to the local landfill and two shade shelters, which were previously in place at the Button Point Rest Stop which has since been closed, were repurposed at the pond, according to Bauman.
“Without the groups around Winnemucca and Northern Nevada like these, a lot of this kind of work wouldn’t be able to be completed,” said Bauman. He added that the cleanup day, which was initiated by Nevada Muley’s, will likely be an annual occurrence, and it is very important in NDOW’s efforts to provide special opportunities for the people of Winnemucca to experience wildlife and enjoy the outdoors and explained that there will also be a third shade shelter added at the pond as soon as NDOW can round up volunteers to help install it. It is also a lot of work to make sure that the pond is kept clean, according to Bauman, as the trash cans tend to blow over easily. Luckily, during the clean up days with the Nevada Muley’s volunteers, the crew was able to cement posts into the ground to prevent the garbage from tipping over.
“This was just another phase to keep the James Kinney Pond nice for people to enjoy,” explained Bauman.