Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, November 7, 2007

REPULSE BAY - A Repulse Bay man is the proud owner of a new Bravo snowmobile after winning the annual Naujat Co-op Fishing Derby in Repulse this past month.

A large crowd came out to try and win a new Bravo snowmobile at the Naujat Coop's annual fishing derby at Old Water Lake near Repulse Bay this past month. - photo courtesy of John Kaufmann

Noah Siusangnark captured the grand prize by landing a trout measuring 16 inches, which is considered a nice fish for Old Water Lake.

His granddaughter, Loreena Siusangnark, was the derby's second-place finisher, and won a new washer and dryer for her angling expertise.

Naujat Co-op manager John Kaufmann said the store holds the annual fishing derby to coincide with Co-op Week during the third week in October.

He said the Repulse store has been holding the derby for the past six years and it keeps getting bigger and better every year.

"The whole town was out to this derby because everyone wanted a shot at winning that Bravo," laughed Kaufmann.

"We had 10 prizes in total for the 10 biggest fish caught in a two-hour span on Old Water Lake, which is a very shallow lake that's close to the community.

"The fish in it tend to be small trout which makes the derby really quite exciting."

Kaufmann said the derby was a lot of fun for the entire community.

He said Mother Nature co-operated for the annual event, providing the anglers with sunshine, light winds and warm temperatures for October in Repulse.

"We had a very large crowd at the lake and if the kids weren't fishing with their parents, they were around sliding and having a lot of fun playing together.

"That's the big advantage of having the derby at Old Water Lake, because it's accessible by road and close enough to the community that pretty well anyone who wants to can get there.

"In some Kivalliq fishing derbies, people go for hundreds of miles to land the big one, but we'd rather have everyone able to compete."