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The Victoria GAZETTE |
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by Sue Orsen How do you catch a polar bear? First you drill a hole in the ice. Then you sprinkle peas all around it. Surely you know the rest of the story. How do you catch a large crop of fishermen? First you drill 1,200 holes in the ice. Then you sprinkle prizes all around and also hot food, and a warm fire for ambience. But do you know the rest of this story! The annual event was held on Sunday, February 6th, 2011, otherwise known as Superbowl Sunday. There was plenty of time for fresh air and fishing prior to the football game, however, and between 850 and 950 people took advantage of this wide-open window of opportunity. The crowd and circle of cars and pickup trucks on Stieger Lake in Victoria was bigger than ever. We were kind of afraid to drive out onto the ice but Victoria firefighters directed people with confidence. Stated Justin Jurek, 26-year old Victoria Firefighter who served as chair of this year's event, "This year we spread out the parking a little more so we could have have more vehicles on the lake. It worked out pretty well. I don't have the exact number of cars but we did have more compared to previous years. It was safe because we spread them out more." Is it possible that one day the lake may not be big enough to handle this popular wintertime diversion that occurs each year near the northeast ventricle of the heart of downtown Victoria? It's an event, an experience, that lasts only two hours max (12:30 to 2:30 p.m.) -- unless you're a Victoria Firefighter. Then it begins much earlier and ends much later. Justin filled in some detail., "We had raffle ticket sales, food procurement, and cooking of the food on the day of the Fishing Contest," he said. "We break the members of the Fire Department into different groups for the Contest -- parking, raffle ticket sales, food sales, food cooking. We have a person in charge of making sure all the permits and licenses are dealt with so we remain legal and have no issues. We usually have someone in charge of advertising, but this year we didn't so I had to multi-role myself." Continued Justin, "We drill the holes the morning of the Contest, and the temperature dictates how early we can drill. This year, with the nice weather, we started drilling holes about 8:30 a.m. and finished around 9:30 a.m. We drilled approximately 1,200 holes. The ice was between 15 to 20 inches thick, which is about the normal thickness from past years. For the most part, the holes stayed open until the Contest started, which is what we like of course." So how cold was it this year? "At the start of the Fishing Contest it was about 30 degrees," said Justin, "and then as the Contest progressed it got a little cooler and even started snowing by the end of it." The focus was fishing, of course. "We had 48 fish caught," reported Justin. "and they were either Northern Pike, Crappie, or Perch. It was a little unusual to see no sunfish, but every year is different. Amount of fish caught was pretty good. It means people were fishing and enjoying the contest." It might be mentioned there were no reported sightings of polar bears.
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March 2011 |
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How Do You Catch a Polar Bear? |
