Skip to content

Families get hooked on Yellow Lake ice fishing

Families get hooked on Yellow Lake ice fishing near Keremeos.

 

They might not have a caught a fish but they’re now hooked on the sport of ice fishing.

“We didn’t catch one yet but we’re having a lot fun,” dad, Delano Ducheck said Saturday nearing the end of the day of the family friendly fishing event at Yellow Lake.

Ducheck along with his wife and three-year-old son Ary came from Summerland so they could learn about the sport of ice fishing.

“Our friend is a conservation officer so that’s where we heard about it. We thought it was just a great thing to do on a Saturday. There’s been food, hot chocolate and it’s been informative. We’ll definitely come back,” he said.

The Ducheck’s and their friends were among 200 other people who went out to the lake to partake in the annual fishing derby.

By 10 a.m. all 80 rods that the Fresh Water Fisheries Society brought to the event were in use.

A group of volunteers from the Keremeos-Cawston Sportsmen Association cooked up lunch for the families and kept a steady flow of hot chocolate on tap.

“It’s a great event. We’ve been involved since it started. It gives grandpa a chance to take the grandkids fishing. They don’t need the equipment or to pick up bait. We have all that. They just need to come and try their hand at it,” Kathaleen Gibbs of the sportsmen association said of why the club remains involved in the event.

By Gibbs estimation more fish were being pulled out of the water than last year.

In 2015 the event was plagued by freezing rain and families didn’t stay as long.

“There’s families that have been here all day. I think they’re pulling out more fish,” she said.

The lake is stocked with rainbow trout, Kokanee and brook charr.

Derbies like the one held at Yellow Lake over the weekend are held throughout the province with partnerships between Fresh Water Fisheries Society and area members of the Wildlife Federation.

Jssica Yarwood of the sport fishing division of Fresh Water Fisheries said a summer derby is expected to happen at Yellow Lake later this year.

“It’s a great location. We’re working on it now,” she said. “To check and see where family derbies are being held visit gofishing.com.”