It was really awesome to see the 2nd Annual Whitefish Fishin’ Derby come to fruition. After last year, we considered not redoing the event but had great feedback from the participants and had a few folks asking for round 2! The event grew about 50% over last year. This is awesome. We love to see positive attention coming to our beloved mountain whitefish, not usually the most celebrated species in the area. We had 45 people register for the event online and just under 40 people sign in to participate in the event. This year, we were fortunate enough to have prizes donated from DrinkTanks, BlackStrap Industries, and Umpqua Feather Merchants. There were two divisions, the Open Division, and the Guide Division. Trophies were awarded to the 1st place winner in the Open and Guide Division. A special award was granted to the smallest whitefish, an award sponsored by our friends from BlackStrap Industries. Thank you to Thump Coffee, Longboard Louies, DrinkTanks, 10 Barrel Brewing, Umpqua Feather Merchants, and Blackstrap Industries for supporting this event.
The derby allows anglers to fish wherever the would like in Central Oregon, as long as it is legal and open. Participants were given an official derby tape measure and asked to take images of their whitefish with the tape measure and an accurate measurement. Participants were allowed to submit up to 5 whitefish for the derby. Winners were selected by overall length across the 5 fish they submit. Here are the winners:
1st Place Open Division- with 85.25 total inches-Jenny O.
2nd Place Open Division- with 80 total inches- Joey P.
3rd Place Open Division- with 78 inches total- Kyle M.
1st Place Guide Division- 74.25 total inches- Dean M. He beat 73 inches and 72 inches! Tight run.
Blackstrap’s Smallest Fish Award- 5inch! Congrats to Dylan B!!
