Big catch

Anne Lahtinen reeled in the top prize at the second annual weeklong Salmon Derby on Saturday.

Lahtinen entered into the Salmon Derby with her husband, Allen Germain and said she just wanted to have a good time and didn’t expect to land any real prize fishes. In shaky waters, Lahtinen expectations were changed when she landed a 15 pound Salmon on stormy Wednesday. It remained the heaviest fish throughout the competition and won her the top prize of $3, 500 as well as a diamond and emerald white ring.

“I got the biggest fish,” Lahtinen said before the final results were known. “The fight was good. It didn’t take too long in the end but there was a bit of fight in it. I caught the fish in those rollers during the storm.”

Lahtinen gave the fish to her father who cut it up to make salt fish out of it. She had her picture taken with the salmon and kept it has her background image on her Black Berry phone. She said she couldn’t wait to taste her fish.

The derby was broken into three categories that included men, junior and women.  Barbara Maxwell, a long time fisher with the derby, caught fish all week with her husband, Ashley with her biggest catch weighing in more than eight pounds. She said she was glad to have the women’s category and thought it was a good idea to attract more fisherwomen.

“I enjoyed it and I liked that they had a ladies category,” Maxwell said. “It makes it special for the ladies. They are fishing with the guys and we get an extra prize if we get a bigger fish. There’s a 15 pounder so I don’t have a chance.”

She said she liked the length of the competition because it allowed of more flexibility if the weather was poor on a particular day.

Ashley agreed with his wife and said it was a well organized event.

“It is seven days and everyone can get in on it,” Ashley said. “It is inexpensive and I’m retired and I can go out to have a perfect day.”

Derby chair Doug Lund said the event was a success with 400 participants, an increase of about 25 per cent from last year’s derby.

The weather play an important role in the success of the derby as well. The conditions seemed to change each day from severe storms to sizzling heat. Lund said he and many other participants weren’t able to go on the water for the final day of the derby because of the strong winds.

Despite those bumpy days, plenty of fish were brought in.

“It seems that everyone likes the idea of a weeklong derby,” Lund said. “I can say for certain but I can say for 99.9 per cent that we may do a third annual next year.”

The biggest highlight of the derby for Lund was seeing the 11 pound salmon with a tag from the Thunder Bay fishery. He said that tag meant the fish was able to successfully grow to a healthy size in Lake Superior.

All proceeds from the derby go towards the Salmon fishery. Lund said last year they made a profit of about $10,000 and hoped to make the same amount this year.