The Grand Lake Open Water Fishing Tournament is set to start June 1, and end on June 2, with up to 40 teams of two competing for their chance to claim the $1,000 winner take all prize.

Registration for the contest will continue to stay open until Friday at noon. Five teams have registered for the competition so far, making those five teams chances of walking away with the prize money high if the Grand Lake Chamber doesn’t have an influx of teams register.

The tournament will be held on Grand Lake and will start at 10 a.m. on June 1, and will wrap up the first day at 7 p.m. The second day of the tournament will start at 7 a.m. and will finish at 1 p.m. The differing starting times will allow the teams an opportunity to fish both the morning and the evening.

The competition will measure the weight of four rainbow or brown trout for each day to decide who takes home the first place prize of $1,000. The team who has the highest weight with eight fish over the two-day competition will walk away with the prize money.

Lake trout will not be included in the daily weight measurement for this competition and the contest is a catch and release contest. The contestants cannot use live or scented bait for the competition and will have to use artificial lures to catch their fish.

The contest is also a catch and release contest so the fish that are caught and weighed for the competition will be released back into Grand Lake after the weights have been recorded.

The Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce, along with Rocky Mountain Outfitters Owners Jim and Julie Gasner, organized the event in hopes of teaching anglers and others the benefits of catch and release fishing as well as to protect the lake trout population in Grand Lake.

“We hope to make this an annual event and at the same time educate the community and anglers of the importance of catch and release fishing,” said Executive Director of the Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce Kacey Beres.

Spots are still open for the tournament and the cost to enter is $300 per two-man team. Registration can be completed through the Grand Lake Chamber’s website at grandlakechamber.com or by calling the chamber at 970-627-3402. The awards ceremony for the competition will take place at Pancho and Lefty’s in Grand Lake at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Reid Tulley can be reached at 970-887-3334