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Island Lake Fishing Derby provides lots of mid-winter fun on the ice

February 22, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

It takes more than ten inches of ice and a snow-covered lake to stop some people from enjoying their favourite sport. In fact many people who like to fish think spending a day on the ice is about as much fun as they can have.

The Island Lake Ice Fishing Derby got underway at the local Conservation Area on Saturday, February 9, and ran through to the Family Day holiday on Monday, February 18.

Many people took advantage of the fishing huts on the lake while others prefer to find a spot on the open ice, drill a hole, and drop some bait into the frigid water. 

Hosted by Credit Valley Conservation, the derby had $2500 in cash prizes for the largest Northern Pike, Yellow Perch, and Black Crappie.

“Opening day was really busy and the first weekend was really busy as well,” explained Conservation Area superintendent, Yasmine Slater. “We had a quite few people here during the week, but today (Sat., Feb. 16) because it’s a license-free weekend we have a lot of people here for the Derby but also new people or people that just don’t come out very often.”

The annual event is a chance to encourage people to enjoy a winter sport. 

“It’s just to get people out and have some friendly competition,” Ms. Slater said. “We get local people and a lot from out of town. We have people here that travel quite a distance, some from as far as two hours away. It’s a way to get some excitement in the middle of February.”

Since trekking across the snow can be difficult, when a catch is made anglers can call in a Conservation person to come out and measure any fish that has been caught. Some people choose to release fish caught while others take their fish home.

“We have measuring boards on our machines so someone will call it and will go out to them and measure the fish. It’s difficult to have a live well for the fish during the winter.”

No doubt that many people who enjoy fishing on the ice will be back this summer for the annual Island Lake Bass tournament.

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