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Fishing fanatics flock to local derby

Scotties Marina held their annual fishing derby this past weekend on Lower Arrow Lake
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Second place finisher Brian Webster

Chris Stedile

 

Castlegar News

 

As soon as light broke upon the  Lower Arrow Lake, fishing fanatics had their rods in the water for Scotties Marina’s 10th annual fishing derby over the weekend.

The big winner this year was Terry Doherty with a Dolly weighing in at 9.6011 lbs.The second and third place fish were 8.928 lbs and 8.818 lbs,  caught by Brian Webster and Kristine Taggert respectively.

This year’s derby attracted 111 participants to the marina near Syringa.

“It was sunny, gorgeous and calm,” said event organizer and marina manager Deb Imeson.

The turnout was great as well: she said the derby has only seen over 100 entrants a couple times before.

After 4 p.m. rolled around, the fishing was closed off and the biggest fishes were judged — only 11 fish were actually weighed.

“Other guys would show me their bag but you could see already that it was too small,” Imeson said.

The official fishes ranged from the winner at 9.6011 pounds to 3.053 pounds. All the caught fish were Dollys except the smallest one, a rainbow trout.

Imeson said the number of fish pulled form the lake was rather small.

“It was a great turnout, it was a great day. You don’t wanna see them pull 60 fish out of the lake, but it’d just be nice to know they could catch them. The fish they caught were healthy, though. They were nice, short and fat.”

The trophy given to this year’s tourney winners is a new addition to the derby itself, donated by last year’s winners, one being Terry Doherty’s son Kevin, who also helped organize the derby this year.

“Last year’s first and second place winners put their own money together to provide the derby with that trophy,” Imeson said. “There’s even enough room to put the names of each year’s winner.”

 

Water problems present a couple of weeks ago were worries of the past as levels were close to normal by the time of the tournament.