Small boy, big fish

By FRANK SCHULTZ ( Contact ) Sunday, June 3, 2012

JANESVILLE — Ashton Swanson said he’s been fishing before, but he never caught such a big fish.

The carp he caught Saturday was so big that he won his age category at the annual fishing contest sponsored by the Blackhawk Musky Club at the Traxler Park Lagoon.

The carp weighed 13 pounds. It measured more than 30 inches long.

The Janesville boy is 7.

“My sister had to help me because it was, like, heavy,” Ashton said. His sister is Chloe, 10.

This is the 31st year the musky club has sponsored the contest, in conjunction with the state Department of Natural Resources’s Free Fishing Weekend.

The club, with the help of sponsors, awarded prizes to boys and girls for longest fish in four age classes, from six and under up to 11/12. Prizes were of rods, reels, tackle boxes and fishing tackle.

Prizes also were awarded in a casting contest.

Prize winners also took crappies, sheepsheads, bluegills and a bullhead from the lagoon, which is connected to the nearby Rock River.

Some, like Ashton, decided to return their fish to the water.

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