Another Derby has come and gone. It was a huge success thanks to the many volunteers that gave their time to be sure it would be the best ever. Before the fish arrived last November, folks were repairing and installing the four huge nets at French Gulch Marina. The fish feeders fed them every day, twice a day, and others made sure the fish food was hauled from the storage tanks to the docks twice a week. Every time a load of fish arrived a crew assembled to get them loaded from the truck into the nets. Folks volunteered their pontoon boats and time.

Meanwhile, we had more people planning the event. All Valley Satellite became the temporary headquarters and they also spent many, many hours for four months taking calls and entering derby registrations. Our webmaster spent countless hours preparing press releases and sending updates to over 6,000 email addresses.

The Moose Lodge generously became the final Derby Headquarters location. While the many volunteers planted trout for the two days before the derby another army of volunteers set up the Headquarters and worked tirelessly to help anglers get their derby pre-registration cards, buy shirts and hats, get their lucky raffle tickets and answer any questions they may have. Another volunteer brought in his Dutch ovens and provided a meal so when there was a chance to take a quick break there would be something for them to eat. For the three derby days there was always someone there to process the tagged fish worth money and measure fish for the longest trout contest. More volunteers worked on the mountain of applications that needed to be added to the data base and then filed. We can’t tell you how much all of you are appreciated and how much fun the derby was. We are already working on making the next derby even better and we hope to see all of you again next year.

On behalf of the Isabella Lake Fishing Derby Committee we would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to all of the valuable derby volunteers.

Fred Roach

Isabella Lake Fishing Derby Chairman