VALLECITO RESERVOIR - The young boy seemed in awe of the fish, or maybe he was shy, or a little intimidated.
But, in his defense, it was a big fish, and must have seemed huge to a boy of 4 or 5 or so.
His dad, Ben Lucero Jr. of Durango, posed with the 2.7-pound rainbow trout not terribly far from the ice from which he pulled it just minutes earlier at Vallecito Lake. The boy stood a few feet away, still a bit leery.
Dad was among 194 ice anglers who paid $25 apiece Saturday for a chance at a top prize of $1,000 in three divisions in the 2015 Winter Fishing Contest on Vallecito. But it was the kids, who fished for free (unless they wanted to compete for cash), who were the real winners.
Each child received a fishing startup kit that included an ice-fishing rod-and-reel combination. And while the bulk of the entry fees went toward paying out the $4,500 total purse ($1,000 for first, $500 for second in the three categories), the remaining $350 will likely have an indelible impact on some of those kids.
Those monies will go toward supporting Vallecito Conservation and Sporting Association causes, which include funding 4-H programs as well as hunting and fishing outings for youths and helping youngsters get their hunter safety certificates, according to Jim Schank, organizer of Saturday's ice-fishing tournament and president of the VSCA. The hope was that, with the large payout, the tournament would attract a good number of anglers to help the VSCA raise even a few bucks for its causes.
Fortunately for Schank and the VSCA, a long stretch of unseasonably warm weather didn't deter anglers for the tournament, which returned after a several-year hiatus. On Friday, Schank said there was "zero to 14 inches" of ice on the lake, but that "zero" didn't seem to scare many, if any, away. While there was open water, mostly on the south side of the lake and here and there along the shoreline, most anglers hugged the west shore on the north side of the lake, near the Vallecito Community Event Center - the tournament headquarters - where anglers were reporting anywhere from about 5 to 10 inches of good, solid ice.
Lucero's fish was the first weighed - at about 11:30 a.m. - in the tournament, which ran from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. About an hour-and-a-half later, Jeovani Munoz, also of Durango, came in with fish No. 2 - also a rainbow trout that looked to be about the same size as Lucero's. It was just slightly bigger at 2.76 pounds. Munoz said he knows Lucero through work, and laughed when he discovered that he edged out Lucero for the top spot - at least at the time.
But neither would place in the trout division - Jeremy McDonald finished first with a 3.23-pounder, followed by Aaron Velasquez at 3.05 pounds. Sean Simpson was a close third at 3.04 pounds and earned a Beaver Dam tip-up rod, the prize for third place in each division.
Steve Stackonis caught the largest pike - a nice 10.74-pounder, followed by Richard Samora, 9.13 pounds, and Sam Eggleston, 4.88 pounds.
In the heaviest stringer competition, Robert Morris was first at 8.55 pounds (all trout, Schank said), followed by Shannon Waller at 8.08 pounds and Kyle Watson, 7.57 pounds.
Munoz said he had caught a 36-inch pike - which would weigh around 13 pounds - a few weeks earlier, and fished the same place Saturday, in the northeast corner of the lake. When he first hooked his rainbow Saturday - on a small jig tipped with a mealworm, or waxworm - he also thought it was a large pike.
Lucero's father, Ben Lucero Sr., also pulled a large pike through the ice several weeks ago - a trophy-sized 42-incher, which would weigh about 21 pounds.
"Make sure you include Junior (on his name on the weigh-in sheet) - my dad's out there and he'll claim it," Lucero said, laughing, of his fish, also caught on a small jig tipped with a worm.
The Luceros may have been the only three-generation family on the lake Saturday, but families, and kids, dotted the lake. At the final weigh-in, young children gathered in the front row to get an up-close view of flipping-and-flopping trout, pike and the like.
It was, after all, their tournament.
