HANCEVILLE – The City of Hanceville is hosting the annual Fish-o-Rama on Saturday, April 30 and Friday, May 6. April 30 is the Kids' Fish-o-Rama and May 6 is the Senior Citizens' Fish-o-Rama.
On each day the free event will begin at 7:30 a.m. with registration at Hanceville’s Veteran’s Park. The kids and senior citizens will spend the day fishing for catfish in the freshly stocked pond to celebrate the beginning of summer and to grow as a community.
“We want to give kids that normally don’t get an opportunity to fish, or have maybe never fished, to come out and spend time with their parents, grandparents and/or aunts and uncles and fish a little bit,” said event coordinator Callie Garmon.
According to Garmon, the event has been going on for several years, but last year she took over the responsibility for organizing the event.
“It did not go as well as I had hoped,” she said regretfully. “I honestly had no idea what I was doing. But I learned a lot and we hope to have a really great turnout this year.”
Adding to Garmon’s inexperience, Hanceville was swamped with rain leading up to the event, which made most of the fish seek shelter at the very bottom of the pond, making for a tough fishing experience.
The annual community event is split up into two weekends, according to Garmon, to give more room for all who are participating.
“It is just a spacing issue, really,” she said. “We usually do have a lot more senior citizens who come out, so it’s just to give everyone all the room to spread out and enjoy themselves.”
The event will begin wrapping up at around 10:30 a.m. each day, and by 11 a.m. the prizes and winners will be announced. There will be a first, second and third place at each event, as well as a “most fish caught,” and “biggest fish caught” prize.
There will be lunch offered and door-prizes as well on each day of the event.
