Oak Harbor Marina was crawling with kids armed with fishing poles who were hoping to reel in The Big One Saturday morning.

A total of 73 excited kids entered the Yacht Club’s annual Kids Fishing Derby. The children and parents scattered out over the marina walkways and beside moored boats, dipping lures and hooks baited with fish parts into the water.

Although the weather was just about perfect, the big fish didn’t seem to be biting. Eleven-year-old Jessica Andrukat pulled in a little perch, no longer than her hand. She was going to throw the fishy back, but a wandering judge advised the family to save everything they catch. Anything over an ounce could be a winner.

Meanwhile, her younger brother, 8-year-old Jared, lay facedown on the deck, watching as the fish swam around his hook in the murky depths.

Farther out on the dock, 4-year-old Suzanne Kaltenbach wasn’t having any luck at all, but she didn’t seem disappointed.

“We got balloons,” her father, Kevin Kaltenbach, explained. “That’s the best part.”

Yet boys next to the family were having lots of luck jigging for smelt, a herring-like and rather tasty fish. They were pulling them in three at a time.

Under the rules of the derby, any kind of fish — exempting starfish — can be entered into the contest.

Most of the fish entered were in the one-to-two ounce range, but there were a few larger fish. One boy showed off a bullhead in a bucket.

After three hours of derby fishing, the biggest one of them all turned out to be a 5.25-pound sand shark caught by Aaron Boesch. He won a bike for first place.

But all the kiddies got a bag full of toys and candy, which kept them more than occupied as they sat in a group for the award ceremony.