Published April 28. 2025 12:16PM
The Springside Sportsmen Club, in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, sponsored its fifth annual kids fishing contest Saturday.
The club works year round to ensure its continued success.
The club changed the name of the contest to the Zackary Stokes Memorial Kids Fishing Contest in honor of Zackary D. Stokes, who died July 2, 2023, at the age of 25.
“Zack was very involved in our club, held a deep love for fishing and hunting, and mentoring kids. He is missed dearly by our club, and his family and friends,” Paul Bachman, board member said.
“It took a lot of volunteers to make about 30 dams to keep the 1,900 fish in the confined area of Seventh Street at Old Covered Bridge of the Trout Creek. Over 300 preregistered and about 100 were walk-ins.”
Bachman said most fish were 20 to 30 inches, with some bigger up to 34 inches.
“It was a great turnout once again for our event,” he said.
— Patricia Ingles
Colten Bachman, 11, of Slatington, caught two 28-inch rainbow trout at 5.5 pounds each. His dad Matt was proud of how well his son did with his fishing equipment. He used a 4 pound line to catch the fish. PATRICIA INGLES/ SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS
Ashland Fenstermaker, 12, from Whitehall, took about 30 minutes to catch her five fish. Ashland said, “The first cast of my line, I hooked one. It was a lot of fun to know there were fish to catch.”