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The Winni Derby is a 3 day tournament for salmon and lake trout held every May on Lake Winnipesaukee. The biggest salmon and biggest lake trout (based on weight) earn the fisherman a new Starcraft boat. There are usually around 2000 fishermen that participate each year, so the lake gets pretty crowded and by the end of the weekend, the fishing pressure usually turns the bite off. I fish the Derby every year with my father, uncle and cousins. One cousin usually fishes on his buddy's boat and my other cousin couldn't make it home from college in time this year, but we still had a great time! It is one of the best weekends of my year. I start looking forward to the next year's derby on the drive home from the lake...

Our first year fishing the derby we landed one salmon, and a couple other fish. It was my first year fishing for salmon and I didn't really know what I was doing or where to fish. Over the next two years, we got better and better in each derby.  In the 2008 derby, I landed a 4.12 lb salmon that ended up taking 4th place and earned me Lowrance fishfinder and the nickname "Kool-Aid" (that story is for another time).

This past year, 2009, we boated a salmon that only weighed 3.3 lbs, but with the salmon weights being low for the derby this year, team Kool-Aid ended up taking 5th place! Back-to-back top 5 finishes! Maybe next year that boat will be mine!

We successfully caught and safely released over 40 fish in two and a half days of fishing.

Thanks for reading! More to come!

Go catch some fish!

-Cody