FortWhyte Alive hosts 3rd annual free ice fishing festival
Children, Canadian newcomers among those who tried to catch fish on Lake Devonian
Hundreds of people spent part of the day ice fishing in southeast Winnipeg.
Fort Whyte Alive hosted its third annual ice fishing festival Saturday in partnership with the Manitoba Wildlife Foundation and Cabela's Canada.
Jeff Buhse, Fort Whyte's public programs co-ordinator, said the event offers people from all ice fishing backgrounds, including those with zero or limited previous experience ice fishing, a chance to take part in the winter activity.
"It's a free event for people to come," Buhse said. "You can use some ice fishing gear for free. It's included with our sponsorship and you get to experience ice fishing with some experienced volunteers."
It was the second consecutive year 11-year-old Sam Kayer brought out his friends Morgan Reimer, 10, and Adrian Reimer, 11, to the Fort Whyte's ice fishing event.
By early afternoon, the three children estimated they had already caught six or seven fish — later releasing all of them back into Lake Devonian.
"It's amazing catching the fish," Morgan said.
Kayer is the experienced one in the group having gone ice fishing around 100 times previously. He has been a good teacher to the Reimers.
"How to hook [and] keep a fish hooked on, and reel it in properly," Adrian said of some of the things Kayer has taught them.
And although they caught several fish, they could've had more northern pike, commonly called jackfish, and yellow perch.
"We lost [one] right at the hole because it got stuck on the bottom of the hole," Kayer said.
Unlike Kayer and the Reimer siblings, Youlan Wang and Ren Hays struck out at attempting to catch their first fish.
Despite no fish, Wang and Hays thoroughly enjoyed their first trip to the festival.
"It's a fantastic day to be out and about in the nature and trying something new as a family," Hays told CBC News.
"My daughter was like 'oh, I'm gonna be a winner.' She will get a trophy. She wants to get fish. We're excited to see what we are going to get," Wang said.
Most of the fish caught were jackfish or yellow perch, but Buhse said it's also possible to catch walleye on the lake.
According to Buhse, it's more important than catching fish is trying one's hand at a new activity.
"We're seeing lots of individuals coming and a lot of families, especially new Canadians, which is really exciting to see people try something new," he said.
Chris Benson, events and program co-ordinator for the the Manitoba Wildlife Federation, said a big component of the festival is simply passing on the knowledge that master anglers and experienced ice fishers have, such as offering presentations and clinics, so that newcomers to ice fishing can enjoy it not just for one day, but maybe for years to come.
"That's what we're all about is breaking down those barriers for people to get out, go fishing, go hunting, get out in the outdoors and enjoy our wild places that we are blessed with in Manitoba," Benson said Saturday on the Weekend Morning Show.
"You can go out and get your fishing equipment and as a family, go and spend a day on the ice and enjoy Manitoba's abundant fishery."
One of Benson's colleagues who is deaf was also on hand toward the end of the festival to interact with and make sure anyone from the deaf community who was there could learn about the favourite winter pastime of so many Manitobans.
With files from Arturo Chang