Saturday, July 2: The 9th Annual Echo Lake Pickerel Derby

  1. Pink purse and blue orange peel chair - mrm style

  2. Orange day lilies by the side of the main road

  3. Milkweed - food for monarch butterflies

  4. Fields of wild dill (not edible)

  5. The view from North Street on a hot afternoon

  6. Green, yellow-green, pink in the summer haze

  7. Dark green hills behind the amazing milkweed that bursts open with thousands of feathery seeds

  8. OK, I liked the milkweed! This picture is sideways (too much Pinot Noir?) no matter what I do. It's up-straight on my laptop. Click on it to see the larger version, that one is right side up. From time to time, these photographs just assert dominion.

  9. Diane rowing across the lake to the Pickerel Derby awards.

  10. We approach the post-Pickerel Derby celebration and party, at Launikitis'. People have been fishing since 7 a.m. It's now 1:15 and the award ceremony is about to begin.

  11. Getting closer (Mom, Dad, Marianne crossed the lake in the battery-powered row boat.)

  12. Two non-contestants!

  13. The winners are proclaimed on the chalkboard. Note that the person who caught the longest fish is an 11-year old girl. (19 inches.)

  14. Bill Launikitis begins the awards ceremony. This year's Derby is dedicated to the memory of Harriet Frankel, a stalwart supporter who sadly passed away. The Frankels are at lot 35, directly across from Mueller's at lot 12.

  15. The winner in the adult division: Dan Bigart, catching a pickerel 17 inches long!

  16. In addition the prize money (something like eight hundred and twenty pennies), Dan gets the tshirt!

  17. Bernie Massar Jr. gets second prize, catching a pickerel that is also seventeen inches long. I don't know how they adjudicate a tie.

  18. The star of the day: 11-year old Megan Launikitis captures a 19 incher, biggest catch of the day! Megan is Bill's granddaughter.

  19. She smiles for the cameras.

  20. Second place in the juvenile division: another grandkid, Mike Launikitis, with 15 3/4 inch pickerel.

  21. Mike and Bill, spanning three generations of pickerel fishing

  22. The runner-up got a pair of Yankee sunglasses

  23. Now begins the random shots of folks milling about. Here are some people near the shore. The hot dogs have just gone on the grill, and people are snacking on chips and deviled eggs.

  24. This looks like a completely random and uncentered shot ... but this is what we looked like, all afternoon, forming groups and then falling apart into other groups.

  25. Speaking of sunglasses - I just thought this kid looked cool, what with his chain.

  26. Larry and Jeanette Lamb, original owners of the lake

  27. Mrs. Brown laughs with Mr. & Mrs. Lamb.

  28. Mrs. Lamb and Pat Martin.

  29. The object of our affection: Echo Lake

  30. Two mermaids

  31. Cast a-hoy!

  32. Gone fishin'

  33. Harvesting lilypads.

  34. Lucy and Charlotte ... it's now a few hours into the party ...

  35. The fisher-kids are steadfast

  36. Casting into the sun

  37. Our hostess Pat Launikitis. And at this point my camera battery gave out ...


Marianne Mueller
Last modified: July 4, 2005, Happy Independence Day and thanks for all the fish!