2011 Platinum Sponsors:

2011 was a year of records for our derby.  First, we eclipsed our prior attendance high with more than 260 entants; second, we beat our prior high donation by being able to raise $10,000 for the Sooke Salmon Enhancement Society and an additional $5,000 for the Goldstream Hatchery for a total donation of $15,000!

It’s the smiles on their faces that remind us why we do what we are doing year after year.  These volunteers work hard to support their local rivers and its nice to be able to support their efforts so they can continue with their important work.

We also had a few changes this year which were a pleasant surprise.  First, the weather!  While we are used to the wind blowing us off the water, this day greeted us with no fog, beautiful sunshine, and flat waters pretty much the whole day.  Even though the fishing was its typical challenge for the chinooks, lots of fish were caught and everyone had a great time out on the water.  We even missed the whales this year which is great for fishing!    The other big change was our venue.  We found the need to move to a larger venue that could support our growth so we moved next door to the brand new Prestige Oceanfront Resort.  With only a few technical glitches to deal with, the venue was a perfect setting, complemented by great food from The mix by Ric’s, and great sound from a returning favorite, Backstage Betty.  We also had the pleasure of welcoming Stacy Ross from Chek TV as our new MC – bigger event needing better flow and she did a great job keeping things light and rolling along to relieve ‘that tall German’ from much of his speaking responsibilities!

As mentioned, the fishing once again was a grind, not so much for the pink salmon as there were many caught, but for the chinook, where only 28 were weighed in.  Still an improvement from prior years, but nothing large was caught this year.  The winner of the derby ended up going to Geoff Costin of Team Primary Engineering with his 21lb chinook:

With the bottomfish, it turned out to be lady luck for Ashley Lloyd of JE Anderson as she won the category with a 6.7lb lingcod!

Lady luck you say, well, as it turned out, she would have been beaten out by Dave Brewer of Team Robar with a 57lb halibut!   In the attempt to squeeze out as much fishing as they could, they weren’t able to get back to the weigh-in in time to register their fish.  A sad tale to what I believe would have been the largest fish ever weighed in at our derby!  At least they have a whole lot of fish and chips to console themselves.  Also of mention is a huge congratulations to George Arnold from the Goldstream Hatchery for winning the grand prize in our raffle, an all inclusive package from Qualicum Rivers Winter Harbour Fishing Lodge & Resort.  With his volunteer work at the hatchery, and his volunteering at our derby helping clean all the fish, we can’t think of a better type of person to win a great prize like this.  Being a recent transplant from Ontario, I think he will be thrown into West Coast fishing with style and a big congrats to him.

All in all, another great derby and a big donation to an important cause in the Greater Victoria area.  We were especially thankful for being able to support the Goldstream Hatchery as well after the disastrous fuel spill that caused considerable harm to the future of the Goldstream River.   Thanks to all the sponsors, consultants, and special guests that made this such a great event.  We hope to see you next year.