TJ Gidding didn’t have to make up any fish tale when he returned to Warwick Neck Elementary School Monday.

That’s because Gidding, 9, was one of 40 children ages 5-12 who did, in fact, reel in the big one Saturday during the Tri-City Elks Lodge No. 14’s annual Kids Fishing Derby.

“The kids are catching the trout faster than I can weigh them,” Griffith Williams, a.k.a. “Gruff” around Lodge 14, said. “And they’re all pretty good sized fish.”

By the time Saturday’s annual fishing derby was finished, Mia Anctil, 9, and Ronald Tabele III, 6, were awarded fishing poles in honor of being the girl and boy who reeled in the biggest Brook or Brown Trout the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management stocked in the Elks’ Golden Pond.

Moreover, Saturday morning’s early rain didn’t dampen the spirits of proud pops and, in some cases, grandmothers who lined the banks of Rossi Park in a rainbow of colors helping their favorites anglers put bait on their hooks and even cast their lines.

For this annual fishing derby, which is one of many youth-oriented events the Tri-City Elks host exclusively for children, is “another way of our lodge giving back to the community,” declared David Knight, who was recently installed as the fraternal organization’s exalted ruler.

“This is always a special event for us,” Knight observed while watching his sister-in-law Debra Knight cast her 6-year-old grandson Liam’s line. “What’s even more important, the children look forward to this every year.”

In some cases, that was perhaps an understatement. Take Jada Stackhouse, for example. The 10-year-old Cranston girl, who has been fishing in the Elks Derby for the past few years, was again on hand accompanied by her fun-loving father, Tony Stackhouse, and as usual was among the day’s most successful anglers.

At one point, Jada reeled in one trout, took the hook off and threw it back into the water and before she could settle down, she hooked into another one-pounder.

“This is always special,” Robert “Bob” Hartington, Lodge 14’s Leading Knight, said. “We love seeing the kids catch fish and they absolutely love coming here. We try to make it fun for everyone.”

In keeping with tradition, Lodge 14 offered the morning’s coffee for adults and hot chocolate for the kids.

However, the real lure – people like Lodge 14’s Lori “Mrs. Everything For All Seasons and Reasons” Eaton will attest – may just be the large selection of munchkins and post-tourney lunch that features hot dogs, chips and punch that the kids really look forward to every year.

“I’m not quite sure, though, what the kids like better,” Eaton said with her always-pleasant smile, “if it’s the munchkins, lunch or the homemade chocolate cookies we serve.”

Whatever, the Tri-City Elks Lodge No. 14 again scored another success story, this one being in form of its family-and-fun-filled Kids Fishing Derby.

“It’s a tradition that never gets old,” Williams, the event’s official weighmaster, said Saturday while weighing in yet another trout. “I’ve been doing this for at least 10 years and it seems the turnout gets bigger and bigger each year.”