Jacob Pliska didn’t mind getting up early June 20.
It had something to do with fishing, which was right up the Rosholt 13-year-old’s alley.
Pliska was one of hundreds of people – from young kids to senior citizens – to show up in Eland for the 36th annual Eland Fisheree. They tried their luck at catching one of the Eland Millpond’s stocked rainbow trout, many of them more than a foot long.
Although Pliska had yet to land a trout by 9 a.m., he was hopeful that one would fall for his worm on a hook like the one that he almost caught earlier.
“Catching trout, eating trout and winning prizes,” he said when asked why he and his family made the short trip from home. “It’s one of the last years I’m going to be here.”
The fisheree is open to children 14 and younger and disabled anglers as well.
None of the millpond’s trout were as big as the 35-inch-long northern pike Pliska caught while ice fishing.
“I’m pretty sure I like ice fishing better,” he said. “I don’t mind being cold.”
Mike Roe is president of Eland Fisheree, the organization that makes the fisheree a reality each year.
“It’s for the kids, and it’s a lot of fun when you watch these kids run up with their fish,” he said.
The fisheree began at 7 a.m. and ran until 3 p.m., but people arrived at the park long before the sun rose.
“There are people setting up at 3, 4 o’clock in the morning,” Roe said. “They’ll be down here getting their canopies and chairs set up.”
Besides catching trout, anglers could have their fish cleaned by Eland Fisheree volunteers, win a prize or go home with one of more than 50 donated new bicycles.
“We have a good group of people, but the donors and donations make it all happen,” Roe said. “We wouldn’t be able to put this on. We’re up to 53 bikes now. We have basket raffles, a Packers game raffle and 50/50 raffles. There’s a lot of planning. We start in February or March with meetings and get donor lists ready, make calls and get the fish ordered.
“We have a good core group of people that are out there all the time to set up, clean up and get things planned. This year is probably the smoothest as far as setup. This is our sixth year of doing it and the event itself has been going on for 36 years.”
It was cloudy and a little cool for this year’s fisheree, but the event has been held in the rain in the past.
“It’ll knock down the numbers a little bit, but we’ll still have a pretty good crowd,” Roe said. “We’ll have people sitting under their tents in rain jackets just to be able to fish.”
Roe said seeing the crowd at the event each year never gets old.
“When I see the pond full of people, it’s amazing, and it feels really good,” he said. “The first year we did it, there was a little girl and the fish was almost as big as she was. I’ll tell you what, it makes it all worthwhile.”
Chris Rzentkowski, of Wittenberg, one of the organizers of the Eland Fisheree in Eland, cleans a rainbow trout for an angler to take home for a meal. (Greg Seubert)
Korey Anderson, of Wittenberg, left, and her cousin, Makenna Miller, of Kronenwetter, chill out in their lawn chairs while fishing for trout. (Greg Seubert)
