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Mark Freeman Commentary Derby winners Here are the winners in Saturday's Rainbow $5,000 fishing derby at Lost Creek Lake. $1,000 winners Men over 50 : Arbee Freeman, Medford -- 1.2 lbs. Women over 50 : Eulayne Ellis, Jacksonville -- 1.2 lbs. Men 18-49 :Joshua Dobson, Williams -- 6.9 lbs. Women 18-49 : April Conover, Klamath Falls -- 5 lbs. $500 winners Boys 14-17 : Jabez Carr, Central Point -- 1.2 lbs. Girls 14-17 : Briana Bergman, Phoenix -- 1.2 lbs. Trout just big enough to net woman $1,000 By MARK FREEMAN TRAIL -- Like 600 other contestants in the Rainbow $5,000 trout derby, Eulayne Ellis spent Saturday trying to catch one big rainbow. But all she could muster was a stringer of 14-inchers. These trout, and thousands like them in Lost Creek Lake, seem to be cut from the same cookie cutter -- 14 inches long, and 17 ounces. The last fish the 70-year-old Ellis caught Saturday looked a tad fatter than the rest -- but not fat enough to enter in the lake's one-day trout derby. "It was so pitifully little," Ellis says, "that I was too embarrassed to even get the thing weighed." But the Jacksonville woman yielded to pressure from her husband, Jack, and had the fish weighed. Good thing, too. Her little rainbow had just enough extra fat to weigh one ounce more than the rest of the 14-inch rainbows caught by senior-women anglers during Saturday's fishing derby at Lost Creek Lake. That extra ounce netted Ellis $1,000 in the Rainbow $5,000 fishing derby, where everyday anglers win big cash for everyday fish. In fact, the winning fish in four of the six age and gender categories in the second annual derby all weighed just 18 ounces -- just a tiny bit more hefty than the rest of the trout. "It was exciting," Ellis says. "I was shocked I won. I said, `Thank goodness I took my heart medicine."' "It isn't every day I go fishing and win something like this," she says. That's the lure of the Rainbow $5,000 derby, a joint venture between the Black Bird Shopping Center and Citadel Communications, which owns a string of Medford radio stations. Contestants pre-registered and paid $10, then fished all day at Lost Creek Lake anywhere and any way they wanted. The only requirements: observe all angling rules and have a valid fishing license. Black Bird handles the registration and logistics, while Citadel Communications fronts the $5,000 purse. This year's event drew 628 participants. The heaviest fish in four adult categories earned its keeper $1,000; teenagers vied for $500 payoffs. The idea is to provide a fun and profitable day of angling for average fishermen -- the people who don't otherwise find themselves in tournaments that pay top dollar for top fish. Lost Creek Lake adds further excitement because of the relative sameness of the lake's rainbow trout. Fish are planted as 8-inch ``legals" each spring, and those that live a full year are virtually all the same length and weight -- 14 inches and 17 ounces. "There are thousands of those 14-inchers in that lake," says Mike McMullen from the Black Bird store. "But a few bullied around the other fish, or got a little bit more food for breakfast and weighed one ounce more. "For those who caught a trout just a hair heavier than the rest, it was their lucky day," McMullen says. It didn't feel lucky until the very end for Ellis, whose husband coaxed her into registering for the derby. The couple spent most of the day trolling in their 14-foot Sea Swirl boat, dragging Wedding Ring spinners and other lures. They caught plenty of trout, but none any bigger than the other. After venturing up the lake's northeast end, they found a large contingent of boats fishing in an area near where a mountain stream pours into the lake. They anchored, cast worms into 27 feet of water and waited. Ellis hooked her fifth and final fish, reeled it up and found it a hair larger than the rest -- but still unimpressive. "I just looked at this little, old fat thing and thought, `That's not a winner,"' she says. That extra ounce could have come because the trout was living in some of the lake's coldest water. Creek mouths typically bring cooler water to the lake, and trout living in cooler water during the summer can use more of their daily intake of food to build size. Trout also expend more energy in warm water, so those that live in cooler water can use more of their food to build size. Unaware of these fish-food dynamics, Ellis returned to Stewart State Park for the official weigh-in. There, she noticed that the top fish in her "Women Over 50" category was 1 pound, 1 ounce. Ellis' fish slipped in a full ounce ahead, and stayed on top of the leader board when the weigh-in closed. She plans to parlay her $1,000 prize into more fishing. "We'll take some more fishing trips in our motor home, and experience some more of the wonderful lakes in Oregon," she says. (Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 541-776-4470.) Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA