LAKEWOOD — When 6-year-old Jrake Maier of Marysville caught the second-biggest fish of his life at Gissberg Twin Lakes County Park May 16, his father, Jamen, dutifully carved another notch on his son’s fishing pole.

Jrake has been fishing since he was 3, and that Saturday marked his eighth catch, at 1.6 ounces. The rainbow trout Jrake caught at Jennings Park May 2 weighed 1.9 ounces, and at 17 inches remains his biggest catch to date.

Jamen expressed his gratitude to the Everett Steelhead & Salmon Club for conducting both of these annual free fishing derbies, as well as to the Tulalip Cabela’s for its March 14-15 fishing lessons.

“We’ve been to Twin Lakes a couple of times before,” Jamen Maier said. “It’s always been beautiful. It’s a great, wide-open space where our black lab can run, and my sons can see beaver dams. Of course, we still hope to at least get a bite.”

The last time they came home from fishing, Jamen tried out a new recipe for his boys’ catch, by battering and frying the fish in Cajun spices.

“They turned out just perfect,” Maier said. “Jrake doesn’t like the bones, so I take those out for him, but my older son, Jace, who’s ten, doesn’t mind leaving them in.”

Meanwhile, the Kraemers came up from Everett to take part in the derby, and while 5-year-old Ryan caught an 8-incher, mom Angela admitted that she and her two kids’ grandparents are the only ones who enjoy eating fish.

“Until they learn how to turn freshly caught fish into fish sticks,” Kraemer laughed, as her husband tried in vain to get Ryan to hold his fish. “He’s a little squeamish.”

Jack Blair, coordinator with the Everett Steelhead & Salmon Club, reported that his group loaned out around 30 fishing poles, but estimated the total attendance to be triple that number.