Optimists Are Hooked on Fishing Rodeo

Adalyn McClendon and her grandfather Phil Wooten are all smiles during Saturday’s Optimist Club Fishing Rodeo at Dickert Pond inside Camp Jordan Park.

The fish were biting at Dickert Pond inside Camp Jordan Park, Saturday morning, as the East Ridge Optimist Club put on its 7th Annual Fishing Rodeo.

“So far I’ve caught four,” said young Adalyn McClendon, who was brought to the event by her grandfather, Phil Wooten. “The biggest one has been two pounds.”

The event is one of the most popular sponsored by the Optimists. John Tilley, the President of the club, said about 55 kids had registered as of 10 a.m. He was sure more would show up for the final two hours of the tournament.

You didn’t have to catch a fish to win a prize. Optimist members Curtis Baker and Jim Bethune bellowed out the name of a lucky angler every 15 minutes, as door prizes from Bass Pro Shops were being picked from those registered.

Officers from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency were standing by weighing fish – mostly catfish – that participants were pulling from the pond. Hundreds of pounds of catfish were stocked in the pond on Friday evening, officials said.

Harry Mackey, the Optimist Club’s world renowned chef, manned the grill preparing hotdogs for the kids and adults. The task was a breeze for the man who carefully caters numerous events for the club each and every year.

“This is the most fun event we put on,” said Tilley. “I just love it.”

Later in the day prizes were awarded for the biggest fish and the smallest, as well as total number of fish caught.

East Ridge News Online will attempt to update this story with those results.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.