Michels Canada Pipeline, with the help of Woods n’ Water, organized a fishing derby on Feb. 26 on Tchesinkut Lake and Burns Lake. All fish caught were a catch and release, along with descenders being used so no fish was harmed. The total fish caught between Burns Lake and Tchesinkut Lake was 44.
Allison Ussyk, Project Environmental Manager for Michels said, “The community support of the Burns Lake Centennial Ice Fishing Derby was impressive. We had tremendous partner support from Woods n’ Water and community member support, complimenting Michels employee involvement, both with fishing in the event itself and volunteering, to make the event the success it was. The total number of registered entrants was 354, some of which simply entered to donate money to the community with no intention of fishing for a prize. That is true community spirit. Overall, Michels would call it a notable success for the community. The event was well planned with learnings from the summer fishing derby incorporated into the plan. The community was very helpful with coordinating, staging, volunteering, policing, providing key natural resource information to ensure protection of the fish resources in the local area, and from a marketing perspective.”
She went on to say, “We fully appreciate the support from our friends at Anglers Atlas. There are some learnings from the use of the Anglers Atlas MyCatch mobile app to effectively register the significant number of entrants involved in the event. We will be providing feed back to Anglers Atlas with respect to registrations on the app. Another learning is to perhaps limit the entries but when the event is purely for charitable giving, our goal was to maximize the contribution back to the village, district and area residents.”
Although the registration process was a bit rigorous and some were not expected to have an email address to enter Ussyk said, “Thank you to all participants for being patient while we worked through the registration process. The turnout well exceeded our expectations. For an event like the charitable fish derby, one can rarely have enough volunteers. It may be advisable to perhaps cap the number of entries and require the app to be pre-downloaded with clearer instructions on the MyCatch app registration [moving forward] requirements.”
All the money raised will go back to the Burns Lake and area community. Ussyk said, “Michels is pleased to announce that we are partnering with Coastal GasLink (CGL) on community donation initiatives. Michels, again with the support of employees, community members and supporting folks, raised approximately $65,000. We continue to work with CGL to maximize the value of their matching program where they may match up 100 per cent of funds raised. This is on top of other initiatives either separately, or together, that Michels and CGL have ongoing.”
The beneficiaries of donations are as follows, and is subject to updating: School District No. 91 (Nechako Lakes) 2023 grad class and woodshop, the Village of Burns Lake, Lakes District Festival Association, Lakes District Fall Fair Association, Burns Lake Search and Rescue Society, Colleymount Recreation Commission, Lakes Outdoor Recreation Society, Tweedsmuir Recreation Commission and the Regional District of Bulkely-Nechako.
The Lakes District Secondary School grad class for 2023 ran the50/50 and they were able to raise $7,185 from the event.
The list of prize winners is as follows:
1st place longest char – Ian Gardner
2nd place longest char – Travis McKee
3rd place longest char – David Gruen
1st place longest rainbow – Michael Baker
2nd place longest rainbow – Kim-Ly Thompson
3rd place longest rainbow – Tyler Havens
1st place youth longest char – Lucy Hayes
Best 3 longest char combined – Tyler Gardner
Most number of fish caught – Mike Innis
First fish entered – Sherille Brewer
Shortest fish entered – Ryan Bjorgan
As the remainder of youth prizes were not claimed. We divided up the remaining gift cards and handed them out to all the youth in attendance at the prize giveaway.
