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Mark Freeman Commentary Anglers ready for return of fish derby TRAIL � Donna Bergman sat anxiously on a Stewart State Park bench last June, her eyes darting from the slow hands of her watch and the number 1.1 written next to her name on a large board. The watch said 3:45 p.m., and the 1.1 pounds represented the weight of the trout she caught earlier that day in the Rainbow $5,000 Fishing Derby on Lost Creek Lake. If no one in her age group topped 1.1 pounds by the 4 p.m. deadline, she would win $1,000. But just then another over-50 woman wandered to the podium with a 1.2-pound fish. It was as dreadful to Bergman as the times she has spent watching the bingo board, trying to will that final winning ball to pop up, only to see someone else win. "I was within 15 minutes and one ounce of winning $1,000," Bergman recalls. "The one ounce wouldn�t have mattered if the 15 minutes had flown by. "I think of it like bingo," says Bergman, 61, of Eagle Point. "You get on, but you don�t win. That�s how I think of this fishing derby. I was on, but I didn�t win." But Bergman will be back on Lost Creek Lake on June 24, wearing her Rainbow $5,000 T-shirt and trying to catch a trout that will last the final 15 minutes on the leader board. About 800 others like her will be at the lake as well, taking part in the third annual event that has captured enough imagination among everyday anglers looking for that one bite that turns a fun day fishing into a big payday. That�s the lure of the derby, which is a joint venture between the Black Bird Shopping Center and Citadel Communications, which owns a string of Medford radio stations. Contestants preregister and pay $10, then fish all day June 24 at Lost Creek Lake anywhere and any way they want � provided they are licensed anglers and obey all fishing laws. Contestants are grouped into four adult categories, ages 18-49 and 50-and-up for both men and women. Boys and girls 14-17 compete in their own separate groups. The heaviest fish in each of the four adult categories win $1,000; teenagers vie for $500 payoffs, while kids under 14 can take part for free and fish for prizes. The derby has caught on big-time. Last year�s derby netted 623 participants, and 800 are expected this year. 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. ``It�s that mystique," the Black Bird�s Mike McMullen says. "Every bite you get could turn into a $1,000 fish. How many opportunities do regular people get for that?" Adding to the mystique is that Lost Creek Lake is loaded with stocked rainbow trout in the 12-15 inch range, trout that look like they came from the same cookie-cutter and differ in weight by as little as an ounce. No one knows that better than Bergman, a retired millworker and regular angler who signed up for last year�s derby hoping to win. With her husband Don, Bergman fished in the cool waters upstream of Peyton Bridge, using everything from PowerBait to single salmon eggs in the quest for a bite. "We bring a little bit of everything, except worms," she says. The couple caught several 12- to 13-inch fish that each weighed a pound, but one 14-incher Bergman caught weighed an ounce more. They motored into Stewart State Park about 2 p.m., and at the official weigh-in Bergman�s trout topped the over-50 women�s category. As boat after boat of other anglers came in, no senior women carried in a fish bigger than Bergman�s trout. And to make matters more tense, Bergman�s granddaughter, Briana Bergman, had a 1.2-pound trout that was leading the girls� 14-17 age bracket worth $500. "I was looking at that board thinking, �It�s going to be grandma and granddaughter winning,� " Bergman says. Then, 15 minutes before the deadline, along came Eulayne Ellis of Jacksonville. Ellis� 1.2-pound trout had bit a worm and took away the grandma half of the Bergman quinella. Ellis� trout won her $1,000; Bergman�s fish got skinned and rolled in seasoned bread crumbs for a date with a frying pan that night. "Even if I had won, I�d have eaten him," Bergman says. "I wasn�t going to stuff it." The disappointment of her woulda-coulda-shoulda encounter with a winner�s check lasted much longer than the trout. "I�ve thought about it quite a lot since then," she says. "I think, oh well, it� s just like playing bingo." (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. 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