Fishing_derby

Jeff Green | Mar 12, 2009

Savannah Parks shows off her catch of the day at the Big Gull Lake Fishing Derby, Saturday February. 28. Photo Kaitlyn Balogh

A sunny but cool day on February 28 greeted anglers of all ages for the fifth annual Frontenac Addington Trappers council fishing derby on Big Gull Lake. This year’s derby was our fifth and shows no sign of slowing. The fishing derby is of course a fundraiser but we started and intend to stay always with our theme of, it’s a family day, bring the wife, kids and let’s have some fun, especially the kids. For those concerned about a local fishing derby hurting a large lake we weighed in 18 pickerel and 29 pike which is not even a drop in the bucket compared to one day of fishing of our summer visitors.

Nearly $6000 of our fishing derby dollars to date have gone to such charities and projects as Pine Meadow Nursing Home, the United church, Kennebec Historical society, memoriams, Frontenac Heritage Festival, O.F.A.H heritage center, walleye projects and deer feeding. We are proud that $2500 of this sum has gone directly back to the kid’s derby prizes and the setting up of the “Youth Get Outdoors” program.

With your support we hope to continue indefinitely.

We would like to thank all the volunteers who helped with all the work of setting up and running this fishing derby. Most importantly we would like to thank all the local businesses and individuals who have donated to our fishing derbies over the past 5 years. This year they accounted for 80 of the random draws. We could not do it without them.

No walmarts here. Shop local please!

We presented 80 random prizes to anyone who purchased a ticket, all of which were donated by our local businesses. The kids weighed in 7 fish and were presented with special prizes for weighing in. We then handed out 47 more nice gifts to all kids in attendance along with hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Derby results: 50/50 draw of $550 was won by Jeff Matson who graciously donated $100 back to the derby. Thanks Jeff. Top weights of pickerel (trophy and cash), 1st Jeff Reid, 2nd Jen Baker, 3rd Darryl Crigger. Top weights of pike (trophy and cash), 1st Jaime Lavoie, 2nd Emily Lawlor, 3rd Calvin Sparks and Trevor Snider (tied). Top prizes from all fish weighed in: 10” Jiffy power auger - Brandon Wilkes, 10” Power auger - Wayne Hare, G.P.S Roger Tryon, Guided Pheasant Hunt - Woody Wood.