Plenty of fish found themselves out of the water on Feb. 8 during the Fishing Highway 24 Tourist Association’s fifth annual Sheridan Lake Ice Fishing Derby.
“Good, it’s not -30 Celsius. It was really cold last year, this year it was just a little bit snowy. Awesome event, lots of turnouts. That’s all we can ask for,” said Mark Roseboom, a director of the association.
Irene Meili, chair of the association, said the derby was an even greater success than previous ones, getting a record of 228 participants.
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“It’s just great when you have an event like this that everybody turns out and supports it. We have one guy from Seattle and one guy from Vanderhoof,” Roseboom said. “Advertising is getting out there. We have lots of support.”
Jake Cooke was the $1,000 cash prize winner, while Orlynn Braaten was the runner up. Braaten won a $800 Normark ice auger.
One change was that instead of holding the derby at the Loon Bay Resort, as usual, the association decided to move it to another member of the association, the Sheridan Lake Resort. The reason for this, said Roseboom, was just switching it up for this year to see how it would work out.
“This is the first year we did it in a different location so we’ll see. It’s something the association has to figure out later.”
He added that the owners of the Sheridan Lake Resort did a “heck of a job” of ploughing trails on the lake, enabling people to have an easier time walking.
“Come out next year, we will be doing it again,” Roseboom said.
