LPOIC fall derby underway

SANDPOINT — The Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club’s annual Thanksgiving Derby is underway.

The derby runs Nov. 22-30, taking a one-day break for Thanksgiving so participants can spend the holiday with their families. Anglers return to the water Nov. 27, and the derby wraps up Sunday, Nov. 30.

The club has been holding its fall and spring derbies on Lake Pend Oreille since the late 1940s — more than 70 years, depending on which derby you start with, organizers said previously.

Longtime member Dave Gillespie said a few years ago that the derby’s origins can be traced back to the late 1940s after a planting of Gerrard rainbows from Canada in Lake Pend Oreille earlier in the decade.

Since its start, the derby has evolved into a spring and fall event, with the latter bookmarked around the Thanksgiving holiday. The rules are simple:

Fish must be caught on Lake Pend Oreille. Fish caught in the Clark Fork River or any tributary of Lake Pend Oreille are not eligible.

All participants must register prior to fishing and have the club’s registration form in their possession when registering their fish, according to the rules. All fish must be registered at an approved weigh station.

There are adult divisions for rainbow trout and Mackinaw, in addition to two youth divisions: anglers 8 and younger and anglers 9-13. Anglers 13 and younger fish for free, although pre-registration is required.

The minimum length for rainbow trout in the adult division is 32 inches. The minimum rainbow length in the junior division is 28 inches. There are no minimum lengths for Mackinaw or anglers in the Youth A and B divisions.

First place in the adult rainbow trout division is worth $3,000, while awards for second, third and fourth places are $1,500, $1,000 and $500, respectively. There is also a $250 bonus for club members who place in the adult rainbow division and a $500 bonus for catch and release.

In the adult Mackinaw division, the top prize is $1,000, $500 for second, $300 for third and $200 for fourth. Adults who finish fifth through ninth in the lake trout division win $100. The 10th-place finisher will win $250.

There is also a daily $150 “Mack of the Day” award and a $100 prize for the best photo from this year’s event.

Tickets can be purchased at MacDonald’s Hudson Bay Resort, Bayview; North Ridge Outfitters, Oldtown; Black Sheep Sporting Goods, Coeur d’Alene; Holiday Shores Resort, Hope; The Captn’s Table, Garfield Bay; Ralph’s Coffee House, Bayview; Odies Bayside Grocery, Garfield Bay; Mark’s Marine, Hayden; Fins and Feathers, Coeur d’Alene; Priest River Hardware, Priest River; North 40, Ponderay; Bayview Mercantile, Bayview; and Superfly Tackle, Kootenai.

Information: lpoic.org