You can't swing a fish without hitting one of Starla Craig's 12 grandchildren. However, if you include all the children who consider her their adopted grandma, the tiny lady with a huge heart would probably find herself somewhere in the Guinness Book of Records.

Everywhere she goes there are children — sometimes standing in line — for one of her heartfelt hugs. She coaches 4-H shooting sports, gymnastics and teaches sewing. She's also the Willwood 4-H club leader.

"She has adoptive grandkids all over the community," said daughter-in-law Kennedy Craig, who has five boys with her husband Jessee.

Thanks to a recent arrival, Kalee and Bill Goolsbey have seven boys. Combine the two families and they have enough boys to start two basketball teams. That means the Matriarch is always on the move.

Saturday morning she arrived at the Homesteader Park fishing pond just as the sun was peeking over the Bighorns. She wanted to wish good luck to her fishing party of descendants, but then had to climb in her vehicle and head to the county championships for the 4-H shooting team. She may have been the family's good luck charm.

If all 12 of Craig/Goolsbey kids caught their limit at the event, they could have caught about 10% of all 500 fish stocked in the cement pond. However, after Starla left, the fishing slowed to a crawl. The 12 boys worked their bait as hard as they could, but they were going to need a biblical miracle to feed them all.

Typically the 6 a.m. time slot is the best bite of the day, but these tiger and brook trout weren't hungry Saturday. Several children went home empty-handed and only about 35 fish were caught during the five hours of the special event.

Fish weren't the only prizes at the event. Pierce Pease was the first in line at the event, wanting to maybe hook one of the trout raised at Powell Middle School's Trout in the Classroom program, sponsored by the East Yellowstone chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

This year 70 Wyoming schools raised trout, said Game and Fish Trout in the Classroom Coordinator Frances Schaetz. Additionally, 12 Wind River Reservation classrooms signed up for the project.

Game and Fish and Trout Unlimited provided funding, as well as the trout eggs. Game and Fish biologists also facilitate the release of the trout into places like Homesteader Pond through a specialized permit that allows the agency to release the fish into approved waterways in the state, Schaetz said.

Pease thought it was a "cool" program and said he especially liked releasing them into the pond.

For the 10th year, Powell Rec Department Recreation Supervisor Joe Cates ran the show. It was a busy day of registering participants and handing out raffle prizes throughout the morning. But he wasn't too busy to help his 7-year-old, fish-loving daughter Audrey join in the fun. She was the only one reported to catch a limit Saturday; catching about 12% of all fish harvested.

As for the 12 Goolsbey and Craig boys fishing, the entire gang only managed to catch three fish; Rhett Goolsbey, 14, caught all three.

"Other than Rhett, we all got skunked," Kalee Goolsbey said.

However, Rowdee, 12, Rhylee, 9, Rhenn, 7, and Ryatt, 5, all won fishing poles in the raffle. On the Craig side of the family, Gabe, 9, Jeremiah, 5, and Joseph, 3, all won fishing gear, but none of the five hooked a trout.

The special day for the children has been running for more than four decades. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department will restock the pond soon, adding another 500 fish of the same size to the first stocking.

The pond is open sunrise to sunset to all anglers for the rest of the season. All Game and Fish regulations apply.