1.6 Update Trout Derby

[Stardewnerd]

Is the Trout Derby worth it in Year 1 if you're striving to complete the Community Center in Year 1?

 

[Lew Zealand]

It may depend on your Fishing proficiency.

The 3rd and 4th prizes from the Trout Derby can be very helpful in completing the Community Center but it's a lot of time spent to get them if you don't have at least the Fiberglass Rod to use bait to speed up the process. Having the Iridium Rod would likely mean you've spent more than 9,000g on Rods alone to get that efficiency and focusing that much expense in one area might work against getting the Community Center done.

 

[Ereo]

The crab pot could also be useful, even though you can complete the crab pot bundle without using them.
Prices are in random order (or rather, always the same order but the first price is random and it moves through the list from there), so if you’re lucky this could be the first three, or if you’re unlucky they could be the last.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

Something I will add is that it's only a couple days, it won't really affect your accumulation of items for the community center, and if it will make you miss a crucial date you have to do something, it's low stakes, and you can always get the rewards the following year.

 

[VampireCake]

The crab pot could also be useful, even though you can complete the crab pot bundle without using them.

I think I've ended up doing this in pretty much by accident just about every playthrough. You can pick most of the items up on the beach, and crab drops in the mines are pretty generous.

Edit: to actually answer the question - probably not. The prizes are the same every year so you can always grab anything you want later.

 

[evergreen oak]

I completely missed it during the first year because I wasn't paying attention, hah

 

[Yvi]

I've completed the community center in year one in both 1.6 saves I've done so far, and I've done trout derby in year 1 both saves as well. It's quite possible. I managed to get the bait machine by then, and targeted bait makes the derby effortless.