The Bill King memorial Rainbow derby was held over the long weekend, with 60 participants vying for the bragging rights. What a weekend the fish were cooperating and even though the winner wasn’t the largest taken this spring it was still a respectable 30 7/8 inches long which weighed 14 lbs 2 oz. Earlier in the weekend everyone thought Okanogan Jim Sutherland had lost his marbles when he threw back a fish that would have placed in the top three but Jim had other idea’s and ended up taking home all the marbles, the decision now makes Jim look like a genius. Congratulations Jim thanks for making the trip out I am sure the win will help defray some of the costs incurred over the years. Second place went to Bob Garding his fish was 30 5/8 inches long and weighed 13lbs 5 oz Bob was the winner last year and for a while we thought he was going to repeat and be the first back to back winner, congratulations Bob. In third place was Alex Legge his fish was 13lbs 11 oz this was the first fish in and managed to ward off all but two challengers. Alex was also the winner of the Nascar racing jacket donated by one of our suppliers Jimmy Zee. This year we had a special award for the FIRST looser not only did Hoggie need a fish stretcher he had to release a fine looking seagull, we are happy to report that both Hoggie and the seagull survived the ordeal. (check out the pictures) Thanks to all who attended, hope you had a good time and we will see you next year, as well we need to thank all who donated prizes and made this year derby a fun event.

Jim "Hey" Sutherland won the King Memorial Derby at Kootenay Lake in May 2010.
This 14 LB. 2 oz. gerrard rainbow was top fish. Congrats buddy!

As for the fishing in general it still is fantastic bucktails are still the lure of choice although others are catching fish on apexes, and plugs. Water temp has been running around 51 degrees, and the run off has started so a fair amt of debris floating some of the guys hook up on the downriggers and run down 5-10ft, others use Splitshot, its annoying but the debris field is worth the trouble. One of the guys after leaving the derby ceremonies and trolling back to home landed a 18 lb 34inch rainbow, you know that before and after the derby are when all the big ones come out of hiding, clients of Splitshot charters landed a 17lber during the derby but were not entered, and on another charter Splitshot landed a 25lber on May 26th and released it as well apparently we have a picture of this one so will post it. That’s 4 over 20lbs this year so far, don’t know what he is doing but it sure is right. There are still reports of guys landing 15 to 20 fish a day it seems that when the bite comes on it is fast and furious and these 15 to 20 fish could happen in 4 hours. There are even reports of some dollies latching on to the bucktails.

Colors seem to vary a little from the old favourites 215 to the bleeding gill and a lot of different black/white combinations caveman, hillbilly, black racoon, black/white with rainbow mylar, even some black/white/purple combos as well as the 214 and 219. Apexes in the black/pearl, black/purple and Lyman plugs black/white, black/grey, black/purple for the Rainbows and oyster back #32 and the #914 blue back yellow belly for the Dollies.