Rain or shine the annual “Hooked on Fishing” Opening Day Trout Derby will go on April 29-30 at Lake Wilderness.

Organized by the Maple Valley-Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce since 2003, the fishing derby has become a renewed tradition in Maple Valley, explained Sue VanRuff, executive director for the chamber.

Anyone who has gone to the fishing derby in recent years will recognize it, complete with $3 fisherman’s breakfast, $2 derby tickets, a tagged fish in the lake and a fishing pen off the dock for youngsters.

“I think we’ve found a formula for success for the derby,” VanRuff said. “It’s just like last year, same schedule of events, same family fun, it’s just that we get better at it every year.”

Another highlight is the fact this is the one night of the year camping is allowed at Lake Wilderness Park.

Campers can set up tents at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 29, while fishing can begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Maple Valley Rotary will be cooking up hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner Friday night then will serve the traditional fisherman’s breakfast starting at midnight, which is when fishing can begin on the lake the state fish and wildlife department stocks with trout.

Folks can fish from the shore or on boats on the lake and all the usual state rules apply.

There will also be a fish pen off the dock which opens at 6 a.m and that is free for youngsters 12 years old and younger.

This year there are two new major — or Big Fish — sponsors joining Valley Medical Center and Johnson’s Home and Garden: Voice of the Valley and Fred Meyer which is set to open its store in Maple Valley in 2012.

The fishing derby was originally run by the Maple Valley Lion’s Club, now defunct, and began in the 1960s.

“It became a tradition,” VanRuff said. “If you look back 30 years, that’s three generations, and now they’re coming back with their grandkids, so it’s a shared tradition.”

Hundreds of tents are set up in the park and the line for the fish pen winds down the dock every year while boats dot the lake as adults toss their lines from the shore or the dock.

VanRuff said the tradition of the event is part of the appeal.

“That’s what makes it fun, generations of families sharing memories and creating new memories now,” she said. “It creates stories. If you look at the pictures (from the derby) they tell stories.”

For example, a little girl named Sarah, 4 years old at the time, caught the biggest fish out of the pen and she clutched it proudly wearing her little pink gloves, VanRuff recalled.

“She had been up all night with her daddy fishing,” VanRuff said. “She had said before the derby she was going to catch the biggest fish.”

There are many upsides to the derby.

“It’s close to home. It’s safe,” VanRuff said. “The little kids can fish from the dock. The adults can fish from the lake. For the serious fisherman, that tagged fish is out in the lake. You can’t get a bigger event for the price. It is an alcohol free event and there’s going to be a strong police presence. There’s prizes for everybody.”

In advance of the event, VanRuff said, as part of the chamber’s stewardship of the park there will be a cleanup on April 16 in partnership with the Lake Wilderness Preservation Association, which VanRuff descirbed as “a pretty phenomenal group.”

Another great group, VanRuff added, is the derby committee.

“They do it so well, it seems so easy,” she said. “They know what to do and they have a passion for it. That’s what makes this event so successful.”

That passion, the tradition, the community involvement and all those other ingredients make the derby what it is regardless of the weather.

“It doesn’t matter if it rains, fish bite better in the rain,” VanRuff said. “Rain or shine, this thing happens, and people have a blast.”