The Rotary Club of The Pas’17th Annual Bill Bannock Classic Ice Fishing Derby

By Rick Hubbs

clubs-ThePas1cheque200pxOn April 2, 2011, The Rotary Club of The Pas, Manitoba held its 17th annual ice fishing derby. There were almost 1000 participants fishing for a $21,000.00 first prize or if luck would have it, to catch the tagged Lake Trout “Lonesome Mary” worth $25,000.00. Lake Trout is the primary fish of the derby. In past years we have only had one fish of another species caught.

Each year in August the club starts preparing for this huge event.  
 

All of the sponsors are contacted to confirm their continued support for the next derby. The prizes are decided on and the dealers are contacted to submit quotes. Normally the final decisions are made by the end of September and the posters are designed.
 
During September an application is sent to Manitoba Lotteries for a “Rhino Raffle”. A Rhino is a type of ATV. After the poster design is accepted, it goes to print with all necessary tickets. The beginning of November starts the distribution process. Posters and rules are distributed in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and North West Ontario. An advertising campaign through newspapers, magazines, and radio is launched. The target to start selling tickets is December first. This promotes the idea of stocking stuffers for Christmas.
 
There is also an early bird ticket special.  When the derby site is set up the holes are drilled on the Rotary wheel design. Each spoke has 240 holes. This leaves a huge gap in between each spoke. Experience has shown that the avid anglers want the “outside” or end holes on a spoke.  “Superholes” are drilled in the gap between spokes (3). If a person purchases an early bird ticket at $ 100.00 (regular price is $ 80.00), they are included in a draw for the end and super holes. This year there were 415 early bird ticket sales which meant an additional $ 8000.00. The winners are given a ride to their holes by 9:00 AM derby day. About 9:30 the rest of the early bird ticket holders are allowed to leave the lineup. They run to get the best holes. And then at 10:00 the rest of the regulars are allowed to go.
 
The early bird draw is held right after February 28, the last day for early ticket sales. The winners of the special holes are contacted.
 
On the Monday prior to the derby the Rotary wheel is marked out   on the ice, road plowing starts. The parking lot for 700 vehicles is cleaned by The Pas Airport crew. On the Wednesday or Thursday we start marking the individual holes. We use a long rope marked at twenty five foot intervals. There are seven rows in each spoke with thirty five holes in each row. It is quite impressive from the air. The local snowmobile club is on hand to help with drilling and cleaning of the holes. We made a $10,000.00 donation for their new trail groomer and a contract for five years of their assistance.
 
We pick up all the prizes donated from our sponsors plus the ones we purchase. We give out over one hundred prizes of which ninety percent are donated. This amounts to about forty percent of the dollar value of the prizes.
 
On the Friday we drill the holes with three Bobcats and eight man powered ice augers. Depending on the ice thickness it takes about eight hours to drill, clean, and set up the bar, concession and signage.
 
This year we had a total of thirty eight volunteers on Friday.
 
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Saturday morning we are all there between 7:00 AM and 7:30 to start selling tickets at the gate. There are usually fifty anglers standing in line by then. Some arrive at five in the morning.
 
Sometimes we have to re-clean the holes if they have frozen hard during the night. We have Rotarian friends, spouses, and Rotarians starting to prepare for the day. This year we had our exchange student from Sweden selling coffee and snacks to the people in line. There was a ShelterBox on display as this was her fundraising plan. She spent the rest of the day selling T shirts.
 
All the anglers were allowed to go into the fishing area by 10:00 AM. We had people buying tickets to fish up until 11:30 AM.
 
The fishing starts at 10:30 and goes until 2:00PM. This year there were 7 fish caught with the winning fish being 65 cm. It paled in comparison to 2010 when there were 79 fish caught. In 2010 the tagged fish was also caught, a first in 12 years of tagged fish.
 
During the time the anglers are on the ice, the club runs one stationary bar and two mobile bars on Rhinos, a 50/50 draw, and the Rhino raffle. We have the local cadets doing the food concession. The local fire department handles security and a team of EMT’s are on hand. We recently purchased a medic sled for them to use at events like this.
 
clubs-ThePas3-winner-quad.2The fishing stops at 2:00PM and after a short break to calculate the winners, we give out the prizes. First place is $ 21,000.00 cash, 2nd- a Polaris Quad, 3rd- a Yamaha snowmobile, 4th- an outboard motor, 5th – a 50 inch plasma, and so on. After the seven fish entry prizes were given out, we draw for twenty five more. The balance of the smaller prizes are given out during fishing time. The 50/50 draw is next. This year we gave away over $ 3,900.00. And finally the Rhino draw is done.
 
Normally, it takes about three hours to clean up and get everything back to shore. It takes another day to get equipment returned and everything put away for next year. We try to get the finances balanced for a report at our Tuesday meeting.
 
This year we had a bit of a surprise!
 
Each year we have an ice crack or ridge that we have to cross to get to the derby site. The crack is always in the same place about one hundred feet from shore. We can usually just drive over it, but sometimes it has created a high ridge that needs to be dealt with.
 
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A couple of years ago the person that supplies our portable toilets got some volunteers and built a huge metal bridge. This year we had to use the bridge. We take a big loader, trucks, trailers and Bobcats across to the site. While we were running the derby the ice was expanding and making the ridge higher. It rose about two feet in twenty hours. This resulted in most of the vehicles being unable to get on the bridge at the end of derby day. The only way to get across was to have the loader pick up one end until the vehicle got onto the bridge then lower it for the vehicle to get off. Some had to be towed on and off.
 
Amazing sight!! (for more pictures of coping with the ridge LINK HERE)
 
After all the fun was had and the work completed, we made around $60,000.00 dollars. We plan to use some of the money to redo the acoustics in our arena and perhaps a new sound system. We also have a request to install a new TV and sound system in one of our assisted living complexes. This will most likely get done right away.
 
An event like this is a tremendous thing for the community. Not only does it provide entertainment, it shows how the everyone can work together and provide support to the area. We have anglers coming from Alberta, NW Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and United States. A calculation using Travel Manitoba’s formulas has shown that this event will add well over a half million dollars of economic benefit to the community.
 
The Pas, Manitoba is located 650 KM North West from Winnipeg on Highway # 10.