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Hook onto the action at 42nd Annual Blake Jones Derby |
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Saturday, 14 March 2009 |
 Like many others at the Blake Jones Trout Derby last year, these two early anglers caught their limit, increasing their chances of beating more than 1,000 other participants in the race for great prizes provided by the Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce and local merchants. File photo By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
3-12-2009 Saturday is shaping up to be a perfect day to spend on the shores of Pleasant Valley Reservoir, soaking up the sun and setting hooks on what may turn out to be a prize-winning fish.
More than a thousand residents and visitors are expected to soak up that sun at the 42nd Annual Blake Jones Trout Derby at Pleasant Valley Reservoir, approximately nine miles north of Bishop.
The annual derby, sponsored by the Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau, will offer thousands of dollars in prizes in dozens of different categories, including the ever popular Blind Bogey (which gives any catch, large or small, the chance to be a winner), biggest trout and the 50/50 cash prize drawing.
Fishermen and fisherwomen who place in the competition categories have the opportunity to cash in thanks to donations from local merchants.
“We have a lot of local businesses that donate quite a bit,” said Chamber of Commerce Events Coordinator April Leeson. “We have float tubes, rod and reel combos, lots and lots of miscellaneous tackle and we’re putting together complimentary gift baskets for the kids with tackle, bobbers and little nets.”
To give early anglers the best opportunity possible to land a lunker, the well-known trophy-sized Alpers trout will be planted in the reservoir prior to the derby, courtesy of Tim Alpers, Department of Fish and Game and the City of Bishop, which helps fund the chamber and the derby.
Each angler who registers in the derby receives five “fish cards” so they can enter up to five fish (the legal limit) in the contest to increase the chance of winning.
Everyone’s fish cards are put into the hopper and those that match the Blind Bogey weight will win prizes.
The Blind Bogey fish last year weighed 14 oz. (caught by a secret fisherman two days before the derby) and 20 lucky fishermen who caught fish that matched that size had their fish cards drawn. First prize on Saturday will be a fisherman’s dream package contributed by local sporting goods dealers Owens River Flyshop, Mac’s Sporting Goods and Culver’s Sporting Goods along with the Paiute Palace Casino, Sears, Berkley and Cabelas.
There are also contests reserved for young anglers in the kids category, a prize for the biggest fish, early-morning anglers and a special award reserved for the fisherman or fisherwoman who traveled the farthest to participate.
During the derby, participants are allowed to fish in both the Pleasant Valley Reservoir and any section of the lower Owens River (except the catch and release wild trout area) and bring their catch to the derby headquarters at the reservoir to have them weighed by chamber staff and volunteers.
All those angling opportunities lead to economic opportunities for the Eastern Sierra.
The chamber is expecting at least 1,100-1,200 participants in the Blake Jones this year.
“Most of the participants, about 60-70 percent of them, come up from Southern California,” Leeson said. So far this year, the chamber has received early entry registration from residents in Oregon, Arizona, Missouri, Alaska and even Hawaii.
“If you have 1,000 fishermen, most of them bring their families and a lot of them stay at local hotels, they don’t all camp,” Leeson said. As of Wednesday, the chamber reported that most of the local hotels were expecting to hit maximum capacity over the weekend.
Of all those anglers, few participating in this weekend’s derby know where it got its name.
Blake Jones invented cheese bait, which was a unique addition to the fishing world when it was introduced in the 1950s. Before Jones used his imagination, innovation and unparalleled knowledge about fishing to invent what is now commonly called PowerBait, anglers had to use Velveeta cheese spread or cut small pieces from a block of cheese for bait. Those attempts resulted in many anglers losing their cheese bait when they cast, because the improvised bait easily fell off the hook when immersed in water.
But Jones’ special cheese bait stayed on the hook, even during heavy casting, and today is one of the most popular bait choices in the Eastern Sierra.
But Jones may be best known locally as one of the legendary anglers from Bishop. Along with his wife, Peggy, he fished all over the high country and taught hundreds of people how to fish the lakes and streams of the High Sierra.
Jones is also responsible for helping make the Eastern Sierra one of the premier fishing destinations in the country. Over the years, the couple took their knowledge of fishing the local waters to various trade shows in Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Francisco, touting the high altitude beauty and abundance of angling opportunities.
So, as you soak up the sun and cast out into Pleasant Valley in hopes of catching “the big one,” remember Blake Jones, because the bait you’ll probably be using wouldn’t be around without him.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 25 April 2009 )
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