Ninth annual Gary LaQuay Fishing Challenge slated for June 18

by Dan McClelland

Anglers of all abilities are encouraged to hit the waters of Tupper Lake later this month for the community's fun, yet competitive major fishing tournament of the summer season. On Saturday, June 18 the family of Gary LaQuay will again present the fishing tournament in his honor to benefit High Peaks Hospice.

This year marks the ninth annual version of the Gary LaQuay Fishing Challenge this past decade. The tournament was pre-empted by COVID-19 two years ago.

The fishing tournament, Tupper's only public summer derby, has raised thousands of dollars for the work of the local hospice chapter over the years- and there's big money paid too each year to the fishermen who catch the biggest Northern Pike and the biggest bass.

According to Gary's son, Cory, who is the lead organizer of the annual event, about three dozen local businesses step forward each year and donate merchandise and services that are the prizes for a host of raffles associated with it. For the price of $30 registration, participants are automatically entered into the drawings that day.

The challenge runs from 7a.m. to 3p.m. that day.

The three major event sponsors this year are Neil and Linda Pickering's Mountain Market and Redemption Center, Homenergy and the Tupper Lake Sportsman's Club (formerly the Tupper Lake Rod and Gun Club). Mountain Market is donating a trolling motor this year and the fuel company is donating 100 gallons of fuel- both big prizes.

Each year Cory and his family members try to split the registration fees into a share for the good work of hospice and a share for the cash prizes that go to the fishermen who land the three heaviest pike and the three heaviest bass. It is a 100% pay-out event.

How much money is raised each year for hospice and how much is paid out in prizes to the best anglers is based on the total registration pool, Cory told the Free Press this week.

Typically about 40% of the total registration fees goes to hospice each year. The balance is shared by the six top fishermen- three in each fish category- that day on a pro-rated basis.

Some years, Cory remembers, first place prizes have amounted to $900. Second prize in that category that year was about $650 and third was $300.

The tournament has attracted between 100 and 150 participants in the past few years- many of them local but also a number from around the northeast.

There are two weigh stations manned by LaQuay family members and friends- one at the shoreline parcel below the Tupper Lake Sportsmen's Club headquarters on Lake Simond Road and one at the Tupper Lake Municipal Park on Raquette Pond. Participants can weigh their fish right out of their boats at the two shoreline stations.

A prize ceremony follows the derby in late afternoon that Saturday at the Lake Simond Road site.

At recent derbies organizers have donated between $2,000 and $2,500 to High Peaks Hospice from events on the water. Those totals have grown from about $1,200 the first year to as much as the higher figure in recent years, Cory noted.

Gary was an avid fisherman who died far too prematurely over a decade ago. At every fishing outing with pals or family members he also liked to promote a wager between the parties. At the end of the day, maybe the team with the smallest catch might have to buy dinner. “He was a competitor,” Cory said of his father and how he would have enjoyed the event that honors him. Gary fished often with his brother, Terry.

The tournament date was established from the outset on the first day of bass fishing- the third Saturday in June every year.

Cory said in the past he has been asked why they don't feature a children's contest. Usually those competitions are featured from shore, whereas boats are used in this adult tournament. He noted too they do not have the volunteers to run a derby for kids.

Like every outdoor event, weather is always a big factor, but it's rain or shine, he explained. “Unfortunately we can't do a rain day, so if it rains very hard,” some people are reluctant to fish. He said the last two years saw relatively strong winds on the day of the derby and some participants had difficulty launching their boats.

“We always look forward to good weather, and most years it has been good!”

“We've had some very hot days in the past, when it's great and people have a lot of fun.” But a day in the hot sun can also be very taxing. “It's good for a turn-out but it's not good for fishing!”

He said overcast days can produce some of the best fishing. “We've had years when we had a little rain in the morning and then it cleared up in the afternoon, and some of the best fish we've seen has been caught those days.”

“I also remember one year it was super hot, with not a cloud in the sky. It was a great day to be out in the boat and everyone had fun. But I had some people who were discouraged at the end, because they caught smaller fish and put them back and not weighed them because they did not think they would place. But they might have, after all. The biggest Northern that year was only about four and one half pounds.”

One of the biggest fish caught in the tournament was during one of the first years saw a ten-pound pike caught and entered. Some years the bass caught out weigh the pike.

Last year Cory entered the tournament for the first time ever and landed the biggest fish- a five and one-half pound bass. That was bigger than the biggest pike caught last year.

One year a fisherman from the Boston area caught a six and one-half bass- the largest caught in the eight annual events to date.

Many of the participants are locals but the event is starting to attract anglers from around the region. He said an old acquaintance is a professional bass fisherman who will be fishing a big tournament that same weekend on Lake Champlain. Cory noted he was told by him that several of those pros have fished this tournament in recent years because of the prize money here.

One of the primary rules of the contest is that all fish weighed in at either station have to come off a boat from our lakes or our river.

“We also use hand scales to weigh all fish and we don't use a basket-type of scale. We like to keep it a little old school in that fashion!”

That way, too, he explains the volunteer weighing the fish and the one who caught it can both see the weight of it.

Cory said ROOST (Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism), based in Lake Placid with an office here, has been helping to promote the event and spread the word about it digitally across the region.

Tickets to the derby are sold on the ROOST web site and at Mountain Market and Redemption on the west end of town.

-And between ROOST's efforts and word of mouth, people are learning about it.

For more information about the event contact Cory at (518) 569-3988 or Terry at (518) 304-3748.