Posted by – Shawn Keenan, Assistant City Planner

The 14th Annual Auburn Hills Fishing Derby was held last Saturday on June 10th to celebrate River Day, and a record 114 young anglers were on hand for the occasion.  Warm weather, high waters and a river full of rainbow trout greeted over 160 attendees.

Derby participants tested their skills and patience in catching one of the 500 rainbow trout the City had released into the river.  Not every kid was fortunate enough to catch a fish (which must be why they call it “fishing” instead of “catching”) but all 114 kids walked away with a raffle prize thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and supporters.

Hats off to our Premier Sponsor, Bass Pro Shop, who stepped up big by donating 200 slightly used rods and reels for the City to refurbish and assemble for the raffle.

If you missed the Derby, there is still plenty of time to fish in Riverside Park or River Woods Park, although now you might need a little more patience to land one of the 15” rainbow trout now that they aren’t confined to just a small section of the river.

For information on what action you can take to protect our water resources and our resident trout population, please visit www.auburnhills.org/stormwater.php or http://www.crwc.org/.

A special thank you to all of our Fishing Derby sponsors and supporters.