Bill Cederholm’s 49-centimetre catch earned him first-place at the Clearwater Rotary club’s 21st year of hosting its Rotary Icebreaker Fishing Derby.
On Sunday Jan. 29, fishers competed to catch the largest trout or kokanee, with a first-place prize of $300. The popular event had 55 participants whose $20 entry fees will go towards the club’s community efforts, organizer Abbey Bates said.
Coming in second place, Kathy Braaten was awarded $200 for her 47-cm fish. Andrew Mann’s 32.2-cm fish earned him a third-place title and a $100 prize. Ken Dale earned a consolidation prize for the “largest sucker,” by catching a 24-cm bottom-feeder.
The local rotary club also put on a raffle for a four-person ice-fishing tent donated by the local Home Hardware, which went to Eric Buck. The club could not put on events like these without community sponsors and donations, Bates added.
It was raining earlier in the week, so Bates was worried the club would have to call the event off.
“We had good ice, it was very deep ice. It was cold, but the sun was shining so it was perfect,” Bates said. “I had never seen the lake like this before. It was a good thing the lake was freezing for a couple of days.”
Driving the snowmobiles on the ice to deliver hot dogs out to the fishers was a tad “interesting,” because the snowmobiles made a lot of noise when travelling without a couple of feet of snow on the ice, Bates added.
The club’s community efforts funds bursaries and educational opportunities such as an international exchange program, Clearwater Rotary president Alex Kramer said.
The next big Clearwater Rotary event will be “Rotary Richard,” which will begin in mid-to-late February when the club places a plywood cut-out of a man on the Dutch Lake ice, Kramer said. Participants will make a precise guess of when the ice will finally crack, and the closest person to guess will receive a prize.
The club meets roughly every second Wednesday morning at Wells Gray Inn. To receive a schedule of meeting dates, interested community members can email the club: rotary.clearwater@outlook.com.
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