You could say time is of the essence when it comes to operating and participating in a fish rodeo. Just take a look at the Philomath Frolic Fish Rodeo, which was offered Thursday evening at the rodeo grounds.
First, the delivery could occur only 60 to 90 minutes before the 5:30 p.m. start time of Thursday evening’s Frolic Fish Rodeo at the Philomath rodeo grounds.
“He delivered them today and the fish will last about an hour, an hour and a half,” organizer Chris Workman said while watching over the wading pool where the event took place. “Then hopefully they either get caught or they’re ready to get cooked up by then.”
In all, 200 rainbow trout were delivered to the site. The event needed to take place on a Thursday this year because the company supplying the fish was not able to make the delivery on a Saturday.
“Any fish not caught were to be cleaned and taken home, so nothing’s going to waste,” Workman added.
Another important piece of the fish rodeo relates to the timing of catching, gutting and grilling the trout. The volunteers involved needed to stay on task to make sure participants were effectively moving through the line.
The young participants were challenged to catch the slippery and elusive trout with their bare hands. Some could complete the task in a minute or two, others took a bit longer.
Sweet Home’s equestrian team volunteered to work the event as a fundraiser. Grace Reed, an assistant coach with the program, said connecting with the Frolic and Rodeo “just kind of happened.”
“Someone put it out that they were having a fish rodeo and needed helpers for it,” Reed said. “We’re always trying to fundraise — it takes a lot of money to support these kids and athletes through their season.”
Sweet Home competes in the same region as Philomath in the Oregon High School Equestrian Teams organization.
“It’s just so rewarding,” Reed said about competing in equestrian. “It’s something we want to keep doing so we have to take every opportunity we can.”
Reed got talked into gutting the fish, which looked like the most unattractive duty involved with the event. The best job appeared to be those who were having fun with the kids in the water.
“I came into this saying that I wasn’t going to touch a fish because I don’t particularly enjoy raw fish,” Reed said while she prepped a trout for the grill. “But here I am gutting them.”
Other volunteers with the Sweet Home program prepared the trout to be cooked up — the kids placed their fish on a sheet of aluminum foil with their name written on it. And then there were a couple of adults taking care of the grill.
The Philomath Frolic and Rodeo continues with several more events on Friday and Saturday.
