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Courtesy Lake Trout Festival
Lake Trout Festival
The tournament has separate classes for lake trout and salmon.
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Courtesy Lake Trout Festival
Bike Race at the Lake Trout Festival
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Courtesy Lake Trout Festival
"Little Miss Superior" Talent Competition at the Lake Trout Festival
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Courtesy Lake Trout Festival
Kids' Activities at the Lake Trout Festival
The Baraga County Lake Trout Festival in L’Anse, Michigan, is popular with anglers, but it also has a bike race, a marathon and many other events for families.
The 9th annual festival will be June 7 at Waterfront Park and the marina in the village of L’Anse, and takes place during Michigan’s free fishing weekend. Residents and out-of-state visitors will not need a fishing license. (Fishing regulations still apply during the free weekend.)
In 2013, the festival’s Keweenaw Bay Classic Fishing Tournament drew 120 boats, according to organizer Steve Koski.
“People love this tournament,” he says. “We have a protected bay.”
L’Anse is on Keweenaw Bay in Lake Superior, on U.S. Highway 41 in the Upper Peninsula.
“We’ve got one of the nicest waterfronts that you’ll see” in a small town, Steve says. “Fishermen come from all over the area.”
The tournament has separate classes for lake trout and salmon, with cash and merchandise awards and door prizes.
The festival also will have events such as the 8-mile Pequaming Run & Walk and half-marathon, the Family 5K run or walk, the Little Miss Superior talent competition, a kids’ carnival, kids’ fishing pond, a pie-eating contest, beach volleyball, junk art auction and the 52-mile Tour de L’Anse Bike Race sponsored by the Fitness Center of Baraga County Memorial Hospital. There’s also a 22-mile leisure ride.
The festival will have food, including a pancake breakfast, as well as an art and craft fair and concerts. The festival will be moved to June 8 in case of inclement weather.
For the festival schedule and registration forms, visit www.laketroutfestival.com. For maps and accommodation information, go to the Baraga County Convention and Visitors Bureau at www.baragacounty.org, or call 800-743-4908. Or for fishing tournament information, contact Steve Koski at Indian Country Sports, 906-524-6518.