The Chantry Chinook Classic Salmon Derby is entering its 29th year this summer and is welcoming a new $2,500 prize category, for the rainbow trout.

"We've seen a huge increase in the rainbow trout population, they really took hold, so we have a new special category we didn't have before for the largest rainbow trout," said Nick Toth of the Lake Huron Fishing Club. "We're expecting, in light of the new prize structure, maybe another 100 fishers this year."

The Chantry Chinook Derby is set to run from July 28 to August 12 and offers over $65,000 in cash and merchandise prizes, including its top prizes of $14,000 for largest salmon and $6,000 for largest trout.

The new prize is being sponsored by Walker Downriggers of Stayner, Ontario and includes two Walker Electric Downriggers, two planer boards, four rods and reels, $800 in mini-boards, baits, Deeper Divers and Trip Z Divers, as well as $500 in Dreamer lures and a trailer hitch from Cequenct.

"They're really behind the emphasis on trout and we've been able to raises a huge number of prizes this year," added Toth. "We're exhilarated by this new effort and the rainbow will be drawing in new additional anglers."

The derby will also see another new additional prize category for rainbow trout, which has not yet been announced.

On top of the new prize, the Lake Huron Fishing Club has also noticed an increase in the size of rainbow trout in the lake over the past few years, and expects another increase in size this year.

"Last year we saw a 3lb increase and we expect another incremental increase over that," he said. "Last year we had three fish over 20lbs and we beat out the Owen Sound derby for size, which is in September so you'd expect bigger fish."

As always, proceeds from the event will go directly to the Lake Huron Fishing Club's stocking programs and stream enhancement work.

The club releases approximately 100,000 chinook salmon, 70,000 rainbow trout and 60,000 brown trout into the waters of Lake Huron and the Saugeen River watershed every year from its hatcheries in Port Elgin and Kincardine.