Calumet Island

Guillaume Laflamme, LJI Reporter

Over a hundred people spent their Saturday hoping to reel in a catch that might win them first place prize in Groupe L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet’s sixth annual fishing derby.

The fundraising tournament is a competition to see who can catch the heaviest fish in the Pontiac among three divisions for children, teenagers and adults. While the derby’s home base was on Calumet Island, it was open to entries from people fishing across the Pontiac.

The tournament began at the early hour of 7 a.m. and ran until 4 p.m.. The organizing committee stationed itself at the Calumet Island docks all day, serving barbecue hot dogs and hamburgers, and weighing participants’ catches as they came in.

As the derby was nearing its close, over a dozen boats returned from the river to enter their day’s work in the competition.

Guylaine La Salle, one of the organizers with the group, said the fishing derby is one of two fundraising events the Groupe L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet holds every year, along with their annual treasure hunt in the spring. She said the area doesn’t have many community events, and believes the derby is appreciated by the community.

The volunteer community organization has as its mission to highlight the culture, heritage and tourist attractions of Calumet Island.

“We’re pretty lucky, the weather has been very good today. We had a little bit of rain, but nothing serious,” Irène Pieschke, another member of the community group, said in a French interview with THE EQUITY.

Pieschke explained the group’s various community events, specifically the treasure hunt in June, are “about helping people discover the places we have here on the island.”

The group has also been working on a project at an old cemetery in town, which over the last 200 years, has lost some of its tombstones and grave markings. La Salle explained the group has been working on tracking down the cemetery’s lost names since 2018, and that revitalization work began last year.

The group has funded the construction of a gazebo on the grounds, and La Salle said the next step is to build plaques inside with the names of those buried in the cemetery, which means first confirming the names of those buried, which were identified through old church records.

“We really need people to come and confirm what we’ve found,” La Salle told THE EQUITY in French.

“Since 2018, we’ve discovered nearly 1,800 of our ancestors buried in this cemetery, which dates back to the early 1800s.”

According to La Salle, the fishing derby was a success, with over 70 door prizes handed out at the end of the tournament. This year’s winners were Jack Mignault in the kids’ division, Jakob Dumouchel in the teens’, and Danik Laroche in the adults’.