The popularity of the Heretics Motorcycle Club’s ice fishing tournament nearly doubled this year, aided and abetted by warm temperatures which made fishing on the Rafferty Dam Reservoir a pleasant outdoor experience for all participants on March 5.
The registration numbers nearly doubled this year compared with last year’s inaugural augering of the ice.
“We had 75 fishers out and they had a lot more luck than last year,” said Ken Hoste, one of the organizers of the event which took place about 40 metres from the Rafferty boat launch pad.
Last year only two fish were caught, whereas this year, three were brought to the surface within the first half hour of the event’s noon hour start with another being lost through a line break. These catches were followed by several more landings in the catch-and-release tournament.
The winner of the tourney and the $600 prize was Jamie Erb who landed a 6.2 pound pike.
The second place prize package went to Ryan Engot who caught a one pound perch.
The fun prize for the smallest fish was a split between Kevin Kague and Ryan Luner who brought in half-pound perches.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Estevan Family Resource Centre.
Hoste said in spite of the extremely warm conditions that had prevailed during the week leading up to the event, plus the day of the derby, the ice thickness on the reservoir which they were using, measured a minimum of 19 inches. This provided ample support for the tournament, even as the top layer of ice turned slightly slushy by the time the fishing tournament ended at 3 p.m.
