Two traditions continue in Northport.
Trout dinner Saturday. Smelt dinner one week later.

Sue Brown of Suttons Bay helps her son,
Tyler, 2 1/2, at the Fish Derby.

Estimates of up to 150 children lined the banks of the Northport mill pond Saturday and into Sunday, dragging stocked rainbow trout — and a few native brook trout — to shore as the first step toward many fish dinners cooked and served that very evening.

One week later, fish dinner will be easier. Members of the Northport Sportsman’s Club, which ran the Scott Brow Fish Derby — will even do the clean up for the smelt dinner.

It’s a busy couple week for club members, said president Dave Korson.

Volunteers will erect tents and prepare the area around the Leelanau Township Fire Hall tonight, be up to their elbows in food preparation Friday, and serve the club’s annual smelt dinner from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday. The cost will be $10 for adults and $5 for children, with “tadpoles” as judged by club member Jim Cornell at the door eating free.

While deep frying smelt for hundreds requires many volunteers, club member Dan DerVriendt helps oversee the operation. “He’s one of the man guys,” said Korson.
It was DerVriendt’s son, Devon, who hauled in a 17-inch rainbow good for first place at the Brow Derby Saturday. But his wasn’t the only smiling face.

Sue Brown from Suttons Bay took her three sons to Northport for opening day of trout season. “We started coming last year, and we just moved up here,” said Brown. “I love it.”

Kyle Barnes, 7, of Traverse City shows his
prize and a trout he cought at the Derby.

She had wrapped up her 2 1/2-year-old son Tyler in warm gear, helping him to flip a bobber in the pond. Her other sons, Quintin, 11, and Andrew, 9, spent their time taunting rainbows near the bridge at the village-owned millpond. When asked what they thought about the derby, they replied in unison, “Fun!”

On a high bank overlooking the derby, Sportsman’s Club members handed out donuts, worms, coffee and prizes in an unorthodox combination that seemed perfectly fitting to what was occurring below.

It was probably too much to ask that the warm, pleasant weather that dominated last week would extend into Saturday. But at least the more-than two inches of rain which fell in the area came Friday night, even if it rose the pond above a screen placed to keep the planted trout from moving into Lake Michigan before the kids had a chance to catch them. Plenty of trout remained to keep the action busy on the pond, with most kids catching at least one fish.

“It was a little bit chillier,” said Korson.

The fisher kids didn’t seem to mind.