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Altered plan nets Phillips $1,000 By Mark Freeman TRAIL � After spending all morning catching reams of Lost Creek Lake�s 14-inch fish, Paul Phillips and Roy Aonn ate lunch and devised a new plan to win Saturday�s Rainbow $5,000 Fishing Derby. The pair would troll deep and fast through the vast waters near the dam�s face, hoping to lure a lunker trout from the lake�s depths. Rainbow Fishing Derby winners Here are the winners in the third annual Rainbow $5,000 Fishing Derby, sponsored by the Black Bird Shopping Center and Citadel Communications. $1,000 Winners 50+ Men � Paul Phillips, Rogue River: 2.3 lbs. 50+ Women � Ginger Vinson, Phoenix: 1.9 lbs. 18-49 Men � Jeff Sanders, Medford: 2.4 lbs. 18-49 Women � Joyce Glover, Eagle Point: 1.9 lbs. $500 Winners 14-17 Boys � Herb Sollinger, Medford: 1.8 lbs. 14-17 Girls � Kristin Stormberg, Medford: 1.8 lbs. Kids Under 17 Winners 1. Paden Atkinson, Medford; 2. Steven Cox, Medford; 3. Trevor Wolford, Eagle Point; 4. Joey Everett, Medford; 5. Kelsey Eldridge, Grants Pass; 6. Roger Keller, Medford; 7. Nick Campbell, Medford; 8. Ricky Miller, Prospect; 9. Samantha Stevenson, Medford; 10. Taylor Cummings, Eagle Point. Not 30 minutes later, Phillips� rod doubled over from the bite of a trout the 53-year-old gunsmith instantly thought would turn out hefty enough to win the derby. "When that fish came up and hit the surface, I told Roy, �That�s my $1,000 fish. Get the net, boy�," Phillips said. When Roy the Net Boy couldn�t corral the trout when it swam close to the boat, Phillips grabbed the net and boated the big trout himself. Later, he netted the cash prize as well. Phillips� 19�-inch trout weighed 2.3 pounds, hefty enough to win the $1,000 prize in the men�s over-50 age group in the third annual derby. More than 740 anglers paid $10 apiece to fish for trout most of Saturday at the reservoir along the upper Rogue River in what has become an increasingly popular event among everyday anglers. The idea is to provide a fun and profitable day of angling for average fishermen � people who don�t otherwise find themselves in tournaments that pay top dollar for the top fish. The tournament is organized and sponsored by the Black Bird Shopping Center in Medford, and it is co-sponsored by Citadel Communications . Contestants are grouped into four adult categories, ages 18-49 and ages 50 and up for both men and women. Boys and girls age 14-17 compete in their own group. The heaviest fish in the four adult categories win $1,000; teen-agers vie for $500 payoffs, while kids under 14 can take part for free and fish for prizes. The derby has caught on big time. The first derby drew about 400 participants, while last year�s event saw numbers swell to more than 600. A self-professed hunting and fishing fanatic always looking to turn a buck, Phillips saw the potential in the Rainbow $5,000 derby from the get-go. But bad luck and bad judgment kept him from winning his age group during the first two derbies. In 1999, he lost the winner-take-all derby by 1 ounce. In �98, he caught what he called a large steelhead planted in the lake, but he didn�t take it to the official weigh-in because he mistakenly believed the lake�s planted steelhead did not qualify as trout for the trout-only derby. Saturday morning seemed to be a strange continuum of that luck. Phillips and Aonn set out early in the morning trolling their favorite lures around the lower end of the lake and caught close to 30 fish by lunch time, Phillips said. However, they were all rainbows that Lost Creek Lake is famous for � 14-inch hatchery trout that look like they came stamped from the same cookie cutter. "I was discouraged," Phillips said, "that I didn�t catch one over 14� inches." After lunch, the pair changed tactics and locations. Phillips tied on a 4-inch-long Speedy Shiner lure, a trout-like lure he bought for $1.29 in a bargain bin a month earlier at Eagle Lake in Northern California. In hopes of changing his trout luck from quantity to quality, Phillips then headed for the 185-foot-deep water on the lake�s southeast corner near the dam�s face. "There, you have a chance to catch a large one, or troll around without a bite for hours," Phillips said. Using lead-core line, Phillips lowered his lure to about 35 feet below the surface, gassed his boat to a fast troll and caught his winning fish less than 30 minutes later. He followed that with a 15-incher, then motored in to Lost Creek Lake Marina to weigh in his winning trout. "When you look for the big ones, you usually don�t find them," he said. "Surprising enough, they were there." Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. 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