Along with ticket sales for Nakusp's 12th annual Blue Knuckle Derby matching last year's, it's a promising sign for Brett Roberts that the fish were even thicker.
"These are healthier than last year," said Roberts, who's been fishing since "pretty much right out of the womb."
The two-day derby, held each year at Upper Arrow Lake between the Shelter Bay and Needles ferry terminals, reels in hundreds of bull and rainbow trout to raise funds for a Nakusp Secondary School memorial bursary. It's named in honour of Robert's father Gord, who shared a love for fishing that the derby has kept alive more than a decade.
Roberts and his mother started the derby in 2012, the year after Gord's passing. Roberts gives huge credit to his mother and sister for running the show for the first 10 years, following his move away to Quesnel.
"Five dollars from each ticket goes to the bursary fund, and then we hand out $500 a year for a Nakusp graduate," he said. "We try to give the bursary to someone who embodies some of the traits that my dad had, so we look at sports and outdoors as being part of the criteria."
The competition doesn't enforce a set time limit, Roberts explained, as "there's people out there 5:30 to 6 in the morning." Rather, all fishers must be wary of making it back to dock for the weigh-in window, in order for their catch to count.
Only if they flop their trout on the scale between 4 and 5 p.m. Saturday, or 1 and 3 p.m. Sunday, will it register in the competition.
The other whopper rule is that participants' fish must weigh 10 pounds or more to qualify for the leaderboard. This year, first place went to Glenn Milliken and his 15.82-pound trout, with Carey Vanderkroft's 15.657-pounder cutthroat close in second and Stacy Carlier landing in third with a 13.734-pound catch.
With 224 tickets sold for this last derby and 26 donors chipping in, $4,000 went out to the fisher crowd in 70 different door prizes. As well, more than $1,000 flowed into Gord's memorial bursary for the success and future of local students.
Derby-goers flock annually to Nakusp from Alberta and across B.C. to weigh in their local catch. Lumby, Cherryville and Revelstoke residents are among those on the list.
"The furthest was a guy from Ontario," Roberts recalled, jokingly calling him one of the "satellite" participants.
"Thank you to the community for always being hospitable," he added, noting Nakusp Mayor Tom Zeleznik owns apartment units at the marina and lent those spaces to the derby this year for awarding the weigh-in prizes.
Outside derby days, Roberts continues to cast a rod a couple of times a month, and make it back out to Nakusp every year.
The biggest fish he's snagged at a derby? A respectable third-place 13-pounder in 2018, though the derby's 12-year record trout dialed in at a whopping 20 pounds.
Going forward for the derby's legacy, one can only "hope the fish keep churning in the right direction," Roberts said. "Same thing members-wise. Hoping we keep having good turnout, to keep Gord's memory alive."