OZARK, Ala. (WDHN) — Saturday morning about 300 young anglers took to Ozark to try and catch a fish, while also making some memories.

Families gathered at outside of the Dale Medical Surgery Center on Roy Parker Road in Ozark for the Youth Fishing Rodeo held by the Dale County Sheriff’s Office. Participants were under the age of 15 and they put their best cast forward.

Awards were given out to the angler who caught the biggest fish, the most fish, and some other door prizes. This is the first time the sheriff’s office has hosted this event in 14 years.

“The main focus is to get them out of the house and off the couch,” Dale County Sheriff, Mason Bynum said “Get them out here to enjoy God’s creation.”

Each angler with a different plan of action going into Saturday morning.

“Whenever we first saw the fishing thing,” Youth Fishing Rodeo participant, Christian Langford said. “We thought, ‘That would be fun.’ because me and my mom like to go fishing, but whenever we got down here we saw that all of the people were catching the fish down there. We tried fishing with the same stuff they did, but we didn’t catch anything.”

Langford may have not caught anything today but he says he still had a lot of fun.

One organizer tells WDHN they had one angler catch a 5-pound catfish.

The event was free for the community to attend and participate in.