By: Korie Marshall
The biggest fish at this year’s Derby was a 1675-gram (about 3.7-pound) rainbow brought in by Jason Voth – and that was its gutted weight on Sunday, after a disqualified late weigh-in on Saturday evening.
The 33rd annual Fishing Derby was held by the Valemount Marina Association on Labour Day weekend, and the big fish netted Voth a trophy for the biggest catch, as well as the “Men’s Biggest Rainbow” trophy and rod and reel set. Chris Griffin came in with the second largest rainbow at 1480 grams (3.3 pounds), edging out last year’s winner Travis Wied with his 1195-gram (2.6 pound) rainbow.
After complaints about the late weigh-in on Saturday evening, the board had an emergency meeting on Sunday and voted to disqualify the weigh-ins from two boats that arrived after the posted weigh-in time on Saturday evening. The board agreed that the fish could be weighed in on Sunday if the contestants chose to.
Largest kokanee rod and reel sets and trophy went to Brooke Dehnke for her 275-gram catch. She also got the ladies Grand Aggregate trophy, with a total of 4035 grams. No coarse fish were weighed-in in any category this year.
Trophy and reel and rod set for mens biggest kokanee went to Fitz Plamondon at 220 grams, and second biggest went to Ray Bohning. Mens Grand Aggregate went to Rob Dyck with 5630 grams total. Biggest rainbow in the ladies went to Denise Nordli with 810 grams, and second to Dakota Shaw. Second in ladies kokanee went to Sarah Engebrston.
In the age 13-15 category, Tyson Craig won trophies and a reel and rod set for largest rainbow (455 grams), largest kokanee and Grand Aggregate at 1040 grams.
In the 7-12 category, Jediah Rich won the trophy and rod and reel for biggest rainbow at 1300 grams. Keegan Reed got second largest, with Morgan Meek and Makayla Kunka tying for largest kokanee. Maddisyn Smith won the Grand Aggregate with 7375 grams total.
For the six and under category, Samara Olson won trophy and rod and reel for the biggest rainbow with 740 grams,
and Tyson Rothwell won the second biggest rainbow. Jayden Kroestche won the largest kokanee and the Grand Aggreagate at 1615 grams.
Levi Dyck, 13 months old, and Karla Steenman, 18 months old, took home the rod and reels for youngest fisher-
people. For the biggest fish for a kid between 5 and 10, Jediah Rich got a $50 cash prize, and he also received the award for his big fish story – he apparently lost an even bigger fish, along with the end of his line that caught him his last two rainbow. Lawrence Remulski and Tyson Rothwell each won a $35 cash prize for the secret weight – they had fish closest to 276 grams. Bob Griffin won the Hard Luck trophy for continued problems with his boat after it sunk on the coast the week before. There was also over a hundred door prizes given out, and about $30 raised by Kerri-Lynn Fontaine’s children’s activities, to go towards the playground.
