Fishing derby at South Bay June 19-21

You are currently viewing Fishing derby at South Bay June 19-21

Whitehall’s Mattison’s Sport Shop will be putting on their third Lake Champlain International Father’s Day Fishing Derby for community members. Vicky Mattison is excited for the event to be held in a new location this year.

“We’re changing our spot,” she said. “We’re going down to the South Bay Boat Launch instead of the Marina which gives us more room and we’ll be able to keep more fish alive for returning them to the water for the people that don’t have a boat.”

The derby is a part of Lake Champlain International which is a non-profit organization based out of Colchester, Vermont. According to their website, their mission is to care for Earth’s natural resources as well as educating the public about the future of water and how to keep it clean. The organization also looks to educate about the wellness of fish when they are in clean water.

The event is sponsored by Yamaha and many other businesses from small to large corporate companies like RK Miles and Shaw’s. Whitehall community members have taken an interest in the event every year and Mattison is glad to be able to give more to the community.

However, some of the normal events have been changed because of COVID.

“We will not be doing the end-of-the-day raffle this year,” Mattison said.

Before the pandemic, Mattison expressed that the event was always great.

“The best part of the day was meeting new people, seeing all the fish, the raffles at the end of each day, it was great, and people loved it so that’s a big disappointment to a lot of people not being able to do that,” she said.

Instead of the raffle, Mattison is thinking about possibly planning some prizes and raffle of their own instead.

“We’re thinking about doing some baskets and stuff and doing a raffle ourselves,” she said. “We’re looking in to see what we need to do in order to be able to do that.”

Due to COVID guidelines, community members looking to attend are asked to come to the event masked up as well as being prepared to maintain social distance from others at the event. On the other hand, the change in location has helped with making sure there is enough room for the event.

“It’s a bigger spot for more people to come and it’s easier for people that don’t have boats that fish there on the pier,” she said.

Mattison has heard back from community members about their excitement for the event as well.

“Some of my customers, they come in and they’re so happy we get to do it again,” she said. “They are very glad of where we’re going to have it; they really like the idea of having it at the Bay.”

As for the sport shop’s preparation for the event, because of COVID delaying shipment of items, Mattison’s has been planning out months in advance and making sure they have enough equipment coming into the store in time.

“This is such a fishing community. I mean for ice fishing we did really well. We were able to get the most of what everybody needed for their ice fishing and their bait. Summer, I’ve been stocking up for months now and that’s kind of helped me out for tackle and pulls,” she said.

The derby will be held June 19 through 21 at the South Bay State Boat Launch in Whitehall and community members interested in attending can view registration prices on Lake Champlain International’s website at https://www.mychamplain.net/fathers-day-derby-registration-prices. They have “Early Bird” special prices available until May 31.