Members of the Three Star Fishing Club for senior citizens already are drawing a bead on the crappie run at Alum Creek Park in Columbus. And, as club president Paul Wilcox puts it, “we’ll be out there – arthritis or no arthritis.”

Alum Creek is only one of many stops on the fishing itinerary for the club, which was started 30 years ago.

Other popular fishing spots for the 18-member club include Lochenghren Lake near Eaton, Caesar Creek Lake, Rocky Fork Lake, Grand Lake St. Marys, Indian Lake and the Maumee River in Fremont.

According to the 78-year-old Wilcox, the club makes one special out-of-state trip each year. This year it will be Consecon Lake in Canada, located 100 miles from Toronto.

He said the big trip to Canada is scheduled for June 24-27.

“The fishing up there is terrific because of the variety. Everything from pike to smallmouth bass, pan fish, crappies, perch and blue gill,” Wilcox said.

Lamar Spears, a club member for the past 12 years, said, “I still remember the trip to Golden Beach, Canada (also near Toronto) in 1991. We made a good haul and had a cart load of blue gill.”

Wilcox, a DESC retiree and World War II Navy veteran, said the group is naturally close-knit, but said there’s “always a little competition, too.

“We always give prizes on our major fishing trips, for the longest, heaviest and total poundage. We have prizes like rods and reels, so we have fun and compete, too.”

James Jenkins, who at 83 is the dean of the group, returned home just recently from his second by-pass heart surgery and can’t wait to start reeling them in again.

“I’ve been with the club almost from its inception and we’ve had some wonderful times,” said Jenkins, the club treasurer.

Jenkins, a native of Cincinnati, said club members used to meet at their homes, “and right from the start we didn’t take anybody who did any drinking or cutting up.”

“Mr. Clarence Young III (Ellison Center director) has been wonderful about letting us meet there,” Wilcox said.

As far as they can tell, the only surviving charter member is 80-year-old Mattie Mae Granville, whose husband, the late Lawrence Granville, started the club.

All the members are Daytonians, with the exception of Dorothy Buckner of Huber Heights and Viola Young of Trotwood.

Other members, according to Wilcox, are Sally Baily, Barbara Burney, Isiah Clay, Annie Jenkins, Mary Logan, Anna Richardson, Phyllis Wood (club secretary), Otis McGee, Louise Hardwick, Mabel Dance and Wallace Goff.