Our fishing derby, which has been an annual event for over 10 years, took place as planned on Saturday, June 6 at Cranberry Lake, close to the trailhead for The Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail.

In previous years, the fishing derby was held at Stillwater Pond near Exit 5 on Highway #103. This year, we wanted to integrate the derby with a Nature Walk on The Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail to emphasize the importance of wilderness conservation for aquatic habitat quality and sustainability of native fish populations. So we moved the derby to the Cranberry Lake outflow pond near Exit 4 on Highway #103, with access via the BLT trail.

We had hoped that participants would both catch fish and go on a nature walk on The Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail. (The trailhead was only about 50 meters from the fishing site.) We had planned as well to post various materials related to fish and habitat at the trailhead area and to challenge participants to enter an environmental fish quiz (with prizes).

It turned out to be a wet, cold day, which didn't deter about 50 adults and children from casting their lines or Tim demonstrating fly casting on dry land and handing out food and prizes. However, it was too wet to hold our environmental quiz and too slippery to hike the trail. So we postposed the Nature Walk until the following day. We may post a web version of the quiz later in the year.

Lots of fish were caught on Saturday and there were many native wildflowers to catch our attention on Sunday - see the Nature Walk Photos for some examples. Another walk is scheduled for August 23, 2009,