RED ROCK — Fishing and outdoor enthusiasts from all over the region made their way to Red Rock for the 24th annual Red Rock Fish and Game Club Trout Derby.
This is the first year that the derby was held coming out of the pandemic and derby chairperson, Shirly Jean, said that the club wanted to change things up a bit.
“We did have a break because of COVID obviously and we did change. It used to be the largest fish and this year, it's the heaviest fish and we've opened it up,” she said.
“It's not just lake trout. It's lake trout, salmon, rainbow and speckled trout. But you have to follow the rules of the Ontario fisheries, right, because you can't keep a speckled trout under 22 inches.”
Jean said that the change makes the derby a lot more accessible for people who don’t have the means to get far out onto the lake as well as families who may want to keep their children close to shore.
With this year being the first year back for the derby, Jean said that they’ve received a lot more registrations compared to previous years.
“I had 34 boats before I even started early registration, well, registration, because we had an early bird as well, we had 95 in the early bird,” she said.
Friday’s activities are limited to registration and getting attendees set up with their boats in the water as well as out of town guest setting up camp in the space provided by the Township of Red Rock, and Jean said that the real fun begins on Saturday morning.
“It's going to be awesome, there's going to be a whole pile of boats out there,” she said.
“We do a gun start at 8 a.m. and it's a tag in system so you go past the chaos, everybody has a boat number and there's a girl on the dock. She’ll call out your name and they say I'm boat number 1, I'm number30 or whatever, and you have to tag in and tag out. That way we find out if someone's broken down or home safe.”
The Derby will continue through the weekend with heaviest fish prizes awarded each day.
Each prize is a guided tour of some of Northwestern Ontario’s amazing fishing locations which have been donated by some of the club's sponsors, such as North Superior Charters, Moss Island, One-on-One Fishing with Marcel, and Whitton Outdoors Guide Service.
All proceeds from the derby will be put back into the Red Rock Fish and Game Club to support the clubhouse, community initiatives, and educational programming.
