One that got away?

The formula for success was pretty simple at Clear Lake on May 7.

Bring in 7,000 rainbow trout plus 60 volunteers plus 1,000 rigged-up fishing rods plus 1,000 kids and you have an equation that equals more smiles than a circus.

The annual Fishing Kids day was one of 13 similar events being held across Washington this year, sponsored by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, to introduce fishing to families that might not otherwise get the chance.

All sorts of families showed up, but it was clear from the turnout that this opportunity was especially appreciated by non-fishing parents. Single moms in particular appeared to be as pleased as their kids.

Volunteers even cleaned the fish!

Unfortunately, a key element of the Fishing Kids formula is lacking for next year: funding.

“The (Washington) Legislature didn’t put the funding in the budget,” said Fred Shiosaki, a state Fish and Wildlife Commission member from Spokane. The program needs about $125,000 a year to pay for the trout, transportation and equipment, he said.

“I’ll be meeting with the director and we’ll be looking for money, or maybe we can get the Legislature to put something in the supplemental budget,” he said. “The Fish and Wildlife Department has taken a lot of hits in this very skinny budget.”

The Fishing Kids program was spearheaded nine years ago by Jim Owens of Renton. “We put it on locally in Renton for three years before developing a partnership with the Department of Fish and Wildlife to expand it around the state,” he said during his visit to Spokane County to help conduct the Clear Lake event.

“This year we’ll have 13 events that will affect a total of about 9,000 kids, and each one has at least one parent, so that’s at least 18,000 people affected very positively,” he said.

The kids are scheduled into half-hour shifts to cast for hatchery trout that are contained in huge net pens stretched along the dock and shore.

“Our goal is to have each kid go home with a fishing rod, at an incredibly cheap price, and knowing how to use it,” Owens said. “At least 50 percent of them have never been fishing before.”

For $5, the program provides each kid with a rod and reel combo and a T-shirt, plus the services of volunteers who tie on the hooks, attach the bobbers and offer assistance from baiting and casting to landing the fish.

Volunteers – both men and women – came from the local Fish and Wildlife Department office and numerous sportsmen’s clubs, including the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council, Spokane Walleye Club, Inland Empire and Spokane fly fishing clubs.

They started days before the event, rigging the rods and setting up the net pens. They received their payment in the satisfaction of hearing the call repeated over and over all day: “Mom! I caught one!”

“If it’s humanly possible, no kid leaves without catching a fish,” Owens said.

Even a few fly fishers were out there baiting hooks as though they knew what they were doing, proving there’s a worm at the root of every angler.

The kids finished their sessions with rods in one hand and a plastic bag with up to three rainbow trout in the other. Most of the kids had the volunteers clean the fish so they could take them home and provide the main course for dinner that evening.

Some kids who had to go to soccer games and other events chose to donate their fish to the Union Gospel Mission.

Mariah Helgeson, 13, and her brother Chris, 14, were working with Grant Fransdad, 86, to clean the mission’s bounty. The three volunteers from the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council were handy with knives as they filled two big coolers with cleaned trout.

“But (my sister and I) still got our chance to fish first thing when we got here,” Chris said. “It took us about 10 minutes to catch our limits.”