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Denton places second in children’s fishing derby

Dacy Denton placed second in the Sept. 16 children’s fishing derby which is part of Oceanside Harbor Days.

The 12-year-old Fallbrook resident caught 10 fish, totaling 41 ounces. This year first place was based on the largest catch while the criteria for second place and third place were based on total weight. The first-place catch was a nine-ounce sea bass.

Denton’s largest catches were a six-ounce sea bass and a five-ounce rock fish. Third place went to a boy whose fish totaled 28 ounces. A total of 19 children participated in the fishing derby which began at 8:30 a.m. and ended at noon, and the 48 total fish caught constitutes a children’s fishing derby record.

The contestants were supplied with sardines, squad and thresher shark as bait. Parents were allowed to accompany their children and provide advice, although the children themselves must reel and catch the fish.

Scott Denton accompanied younger daughter Dacy to the fishing derby, which is for children 13 and under. Since Dara Denton has aged out of the competition at 14 years old and is a freshman at Fallbrook High School, she participated in a fundraiser for the Fallbrook High School dance team that morning and Debi Denton went with her older daughter to the fundraiser, the family said.

Dacy Denton, who is a seventh-grader at Sullivan Middle School, received a plaque and a fishing pole for her second-place result.

In past years, all positions were determined by the weight of the largest fish caught rather than by the number of fish or total weight. Denton placed fourth in last year’s children’s fishing derby with the catch of a sea bass weighing less than an ounce.

Denton won the children’s fishing derby three years in a row from 2013 to 2015. She caught an eight-ounce spotfin in 2013, a seven-ounce mackerel in 2014 and a six-ounce kelp bass in 2015. The Denton sisters first competed in the children’s fishing derby in 2009, when Dara won by catching a 22-ounce shark and Dacy placed second with a 16-ounce stingray. Neither sister caught a fish in 2010. Dacy placed third in 2011, and in 2012 she did not catch a fish, although she hooked a pelican which went after her bait.

 

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