Drizzly rain and a chilly wind proved to be perfect weather for 25 youngsters who went fishing Thursday behind John and Sophie Mallon’s house northwest of Emporia.
“This is our big fall function that we do with the kids every year,” said Courtney Gagan, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters, which sponsored the event.
The nonprofit organization matches boys and girls with male and female adults willing to spend time with the children and act as role models. Often, a father or mother is not present in the children’s lives.
Four “Bigs” accompanied the youngsters to the Mallon home, as well as some of the parents and other volunteers. The group on Thursday included children from 5 to 12 years of age, though the agency serves youngsters up to the age of 17.
The Mallons had set up the garage and patio as a headquarters for the children, who shuttled from the lake to the house to warm up with hot chocolate and cookies made by Amanda Mallon Johnston before going back to their fishing poles.
“Can I give the dog some hot chocolate?” one of the children asked.
Shep, a 2-year-old crossbreed, kept busy, watching over the youngsters throughout the event.
Many of them had come in winter coats and some had rainwear; others wore effective ponchos made from garbage bags with slits cut in seams for head and arms.
Each had new equipment for the outing.
“John buys all the kids fishing poles and tackle boxes to take home,” Gagan said of the group’s host. “He partnered with Bluestem and Walmart.”
Blue containers of night crawlers were set out at intervals on the sidewalk that outlines the north side of the lake; some of the children cast their bobbered lines into the water and reeled in regularly to make sure the worms were still on the hooks.
“I would say in the first five minutes, they caught a fish,” Gagan said.
As the morning progressed, more and more of them edged toward the west side of the pond, where the fish were biting best.
“It’s No. 5. It’s a big one,” Noah Deere, 12, called out. The crappie had been barely hooked and fell onto the bank soon after it was reeled in.
Noah cast out again, using the same nightcrawler, and the bobber tugged below the lake’s surface almost immediately.
“I got another one!” Noah shouted. “Oh dang, he’s fighting!”
That crappie was even bigger than the other good-sized catch. Fish No. 7 was smaller, a perch, and the line broke as he tried to bring in the eighth fish.
“I know my fish,” Noah remarked, adding that he often fishes at Peter Pan Park and at the Cottonwood River.
Kena Hopkins, 7, was building her fishing experience.
“I don’t like putting on worms,” she said, though she did it anyway and later cast the line out without any help.
She’d caught “only two” and was trolling the waters for more.
James Crump, 10, had been surprised that he’d already caught three.
“I thought I’d catch a few, but not much,” James said.
Ten-year-old Daniel Cervantes also had caught two, and Dalton Brammell, also 10, was chasing Noah for top honors with six fish.
While they fished, Gagan busied herself cooking hot dogs on the patio grill. Chips and juice would round out the children’s lunch.
“They’re just having an amazing time,” Gagan said. “They couldn’t care less about the rain.”
Adults who want to volunteer to become Big Brothers or Big Sisters may call Gagan at 342-5645. Volunteers especially are needed to work with boys on the organization’s waiting list.
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