By DANI ELLE BRISSETTE

WOONSOCKET — While heavy rain and thunderstorms ushered in the opening day of fishing season early Saturday, warm sunshine soon won out. Fishing season kicked off at 6 a.m., and to commemorate the event, Woonsocket Parks and Recreation Department and the Woonsocket Lodge of Elks sponsored the 20th annual Fishing Derby, a collaborative effort that is free to all boys and girls ages 12 and under.

“[The fishing derby] is joint effort between Parks and Recreation and the Elks Club. They have their members come down and they’ve being doing it now for about 20 years,” said Parks and Recreation Director Jim Cannon of the event. “The state comes down and stocks the pond. They threw in about 250 fish.”
Beginning as early as 4 a.m., two hours before the derby was even scheduled to begin, dozens of parents and children arrived at Cass Pond on Saturday morning for the competition that included a morning of fishing, refreshments, raffles and awards.
Slated to run from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., the competition required children to register and each registration number was entered into the raffle contest which featured various prizes ranging from basketballs to a bicycle.
“Each child that fishes in the pond has a registration number, and that number is also the raffle number,” explained Cannon.
“We have about 250 children registered,” said Ernie Carignan of the Woonsocket Lodge of Elks #850. “They don’t all come at once.”
While all the children who were registered were automatically entered into the raffle drawings, only those who caught the largest fish or five heaviest fish were eligible to receive this year’s trophy awards.
“We have trophies for the biggest fish for the boys, biggest fish for the girls and the most combined weight of five combined fish,” added Cannon.
The raffles were ongoing throughout the course of the day and the trophy awards were to be administered at the end of the competition, when all the fish had been weighed and the winners had been determined.
In addition to the free beverages and hot dogs provided by the Elk’s Lodge, competition participants were also offered the opportunity to have photo identification cards made in a program entitled CHIP’s, which promotes child safety.