Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
THE EIGHTH Annual Wakefield Volunteer Fire Department ice fishing contest is more than a fundraiser for the fire department. Much like the Fourth of July parade and fireworks in the summer, it is a local draw that keeps the community together. It is events like the ice fishing contest and fireworks that make people come to Wakefield in the first place and for others, to stay.
By IAN MINIELLY
Wakefield - The eight annual Wakefield Volunteer Fire Department ice fishing contest at Sunday Lake on Saturday was aided by unseasonably warm weather and the DNR Free Fishing Weekend. Jim Tarro and Mike Singleton, as co-chairs of the event, scheduled it from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., but the crowds were not going to wait to get their lines wet and raffles purchased.
Throw the clocks out the windows, folks "began showing up at 8:30 a.m. before the set up was even complete to begin fishing," said Singleton. By the 11:00 a.m. official start time, already 400 people, adults and kids, were registered, according to Jen Jacobson.
By 11:15 a.m., a nearly 12 inch perch was already pulled out of Sunday Lake, the fishing was on.
Singleton said the proceeds were going to purchase fire suppression equipment for the fire department, but they needed enticements to get people to come out and fish, buy raffle tickets and eat. Local businesses donated over $8,000 worth of stuff to auction off and cash donations from $5 all the way to $500 were given to support the fishing contest and fire department.
The contest featured four divisions: walleye, pike, panfish and sucker. Each division pays out a prize for first through fourth place with first place receiving $100 and each subsequent place receiving $25 less.
Jacobson said the fire department also decided to set aside $500 for two Wakefield-Marenisco seniors to each win a $250 scholarship. As it was the eighth year the contest has been going on, there were special drawings for the eighth kid called, at 11:08, 12:08 and 3:08 p.m.
Contestants from as far away as Detroit, like the Brouwer's, entered. The Brouwer family, in town to visit their grandfather Dave that retired in the area, entered the contest with hopes of landing a lunker. Mason Brouwer, 18, thought he might have taken part in the first ever contest when he was 10, but he was not sure. They frequently come up to visit their grandfather, and his dad Steve, likes to bring him and his little sister Riley ice fishing.
Mark Lane, W-M guidance counselor, was part of a 17 member group with lines in the water and kids in tow. The family atmosphere and small-town ambiance that places like Wakefield have to offer and still maintains, were on display as the kids were handling jigging rods and playing in the snow and slush.
Local fisherman and mechanic, Bruce Perttula told the Daily Globe about the fish that got away. Two years ago in the contest, Perttula had a nice Walleye on the line and lost it. You win some, you lose some, but Pertulla and his son Carl, who recently got engaged, were on the ice getting in some man-time to support the fire department as, "everybody's a potential winner." The younger Perttula's betrothed was dress shopping and Saturdays care-free day on the ice will likely come with permission in the future.
