Like so many other events in Northern Manitoba and elsewhere, the annual Lynn Lake fishing derby emerged from a two-year COVID-induced hibernation on July 2.
And just like the last time it was held in 2019, Robert Dumas was the winner, taking home the $10,000 top prize after reeling in the longest fish of the day at 40.25 inches, two inches longer than the second-place fish caught by George McKay. The rest of the top seven — Henry Spence, Trevor Kruzer, Gordon Loewen, Alyssa Rediger and Peter Merasty — were not far behind, with Merasty’s best fish measuring 35.5 inches, less than five inches shorter than Dumas’s.
While one might assume that Dumas is a weather-beaten old fisherman with a lifetime of knowledge about where the big ones lurk in Burge Lake, the truth is that the repeat winner isn’t even old enough to drive yet.
85 entrants paid $125 to enter the derby, put on by the Lynn Lake Chamber of Commerce, said the town’s deputy mayor David Campbell, who helped measure the fish, not insubstantial for a community with about 600 people.
Not all of them were local, Campbell says, with the furthest travelling competitor having come from Winnipeg. It was a beautiful day for fishing, with a temperature of about 20 degrees and not a lot of wind, according to Campbell.
“The fishing derby has been going on for decades,” said Campbell. “It sure brings up the spirits of the community. And it’s a positive, a very big positive for us.”
The deputy mayor says people often only hear when there’s bad news from Lynn Lake, the northernmost community in Manitoba accessible by all-weather road.
This time of year is the big fishing season for Lynn Lake, Campbell says, and some make lengthy pilgrimages to cast their lines in the northern waters.
“You have people coming up from the United States who have property here,” Campbell says, including a couple of Nebraska residents who drive all the way up into Northern Manitoba and some other regulars who have been making the trek of 30 or 40 years.
After a tough couple of years due to the pandemic, Campbell says the lodges and other businesses in Lynn Lake are benefiting from the fact that Americans can once again enjoy fishing in Canada.
“You start seeing the floatplanes again and you start seeing the bigger planes landing at the airport,” he says.
Fishing isn’t the only thing that’s looking up for Lynn Lake. Campbell says that Alamos Gold could soon be ramping up its mining operation.
“Within the next couple of years, we’re hoping that they’re going to start construction on their camp up here,” Campbell says.
He’s hopeful that contractors who come up for short-term employment might like what they see.
“What we’re trying to do is get our community up and running again, in terms of adding people instead of people leaving.”
