Events for the next edition of the Flin Flon Trout Festival are now underway, running on through June and into early July.
The first event planned, the annual Trout Festival Fishing Derby, is already underway, running until June 29. Participants are able to enter in four different leaderboards for fish caught in either Manitoba or Saskatchewan between the 54th and 55th parallels. Entry fees for the event are $30 per adult and $10 for fishers age 15 and under.
Registration packages can be found at Tempo Gateway, Rubi’s Outdoors, the Creighton Recreation Office or the Denare Beach Village Office - the packages include a measuring tape and a list of rules for participating fishers to follow.
The competition will be held for walleye, northern pike, trout and burbot and entries can be sent in through the Trout Festival website at flinflontroutfestival.com. Entries must be accompanied by a photo of the fish, where either a bump board or measuring tape must be visible to show its approximate size and the fish must be held.
Winners of the derby will be announced July 5 during Beaver Lake Day celebrations in Denare Beach.
From there, the Trout Festival will go dark for a few weeks before reemerging in time for Canada Day, starting June 28. That day will feature a community barbecue at Pioneer Square starting at 5 p.m., followed by busker performances on Main Street.
Also that night will be the annual Fish Fry social, which will see big changes for this year. Instead of being held at the Whitney Forum or Flin Flon Community Hall as in the past, this year’s Fish Fry will take place at Chicken Chef, with most of the event taking place outside in the restaurant’s parking lot.
The festivities start at 8 p.m., with performances from local bands Rockkut and Flinty’s Hammer, happy hour specials and the titular fish being served inside the restaurant. Tickets can be purchased at Tempo Gateway, the Orange Toad, Alpine Convenience in Denare Beach and at the Creighton Recreation Office.
June 29 will bring a karaoke night at The Hooter and the Trout Festival Open golf tournament at Phantom Lake, while June 30 will include a long slate of events - the Beat the Chief race hosted by the Flin Flon Fire Department at the fire hall on Third Avenue, a community barbecue after the event, then the Ross Lake Regatta event, where people can rent canoes and kayaks and paddle out on the lake. The annual Canada Day fireworks will erupt at midnight, organized by the Flin Flon Fireworks Committee.
Following that will be the standard procedure for Canada Day in the area - the parade through Flin Flon starting at 11 a.m., running from Green Street down to Main Street Flin Flon and on to the Creighton Ball Diamond, where Canada Day festivities will continue on from 1 p.m.-4 p.m.
The final planned event is the Beaver Lake Day party in Denare Beach July 5.
More information can be found at the Trout Festival website.
