Ice fishers, don’t fret. This year’s edition of the Flinty Fishing Derby is going ahead as planned.
The annual ice fishing derby on Lake Athapapuskow will continue April 7. A recent wave of warm weather has melted most of the snow and ice around Flin Flon itself, but out on Lake Athapap, the heat hasn’t done anything to soften the ice cover - quite the opposite.
“Everything’s coming together. We’ve just been doing a bit of work on it,” said organizer Glenn Smith.
“It’s good. We’re full steam ahead. All we need for the derby is a real nice day.”
Not only has the heat not played any role in changing plans, Smith anticipates the ice conditions will be almost ideal.
“Ice conditions are probably going to be the best that they’ve been. There’s only one upside to that lousy cold spell we had. There’s lots of thick ice and there’s not that much snow,” he said.
“The reality is, if you’re not experienced with the outdoors or the ice, a week of warm weather hasn’t even really removed the snow off the ice.”
Thousands of dollars of prizes will be available, including a number of door prizes, draws and fish-related rewards for those with impressive catches.
The derby gets underway at 11 a.m. April 7 at Lake Athapap near the Sally’s Beach area.
