Ice fishing derby set at South Faber Reservoir

The Chinook Rod and Gun Club’s 5th Annual Ice Fishing Derby is set for Saturday, Feb. 24, at 7 a.m. at South Faber Reservoir after a change of date and location, with the event featuring an angling competition, raffle and door prizes, which will help fund the organization’s scholarships for this year.

Club President Elmer Zarn said there are 50 spots available for participants, with cash prizes for longest fish by length for adults, longest fish by length for children, most total inches overall and a hard luck prize for whoever catches the smallest fish.

Zarn said they will also have a raffle with a grand prize of a two-night Ice Castle rental at Nelson Reservoir, a collapsible ice shelter as second prize and a $140 Sleeping Buffalo Resort Gift Card as a third prize.

He said they will also have door prizes, likely enough that everyone will get something, thanks to a host of generous sponsors.

“We have really good sponsors,” he said.

Proceeds from the event will help fund a pair of $500 scholarships the organization gives out to two Chinook High School students every year.

“I hope to see everybody out there,” Zarn said.

The event was originally planned for earlier this month, but, Zarn said, mother nature wasn’t cooperating so there wasn’t enough ice to run the event.

As for the new location at South Faber Reservoir, he said, the circumstances that required the change are very unfortunate.

Normally, he said, they would have held the competition at Dry Fork Reservoir, a private irrigation reservoir he said the landowner lets them use, as it is a habitat for many kinds of fish, including walleye, perch and bass.

Zarn said they would have prizes for the biggest catches for all these kinds of fish and they would have a higher angler limit.

Unfortunately, an infrastructure failure caused the reservoir to drain completely late last year, effectively destroying the fishing hatchery and killing most of the fish in the process.

The infrastructure failure has since been repaired, but it may take years before the reservoir is suitable for recreational use, and years more before it is a sustainable hatchery again,

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Park Biologist Cody Nagel said it’s hard to put a timeline on the situation, as they could get lucky with a major rain event, or take a long time to refill.

Nagel said the reservoir is primarily for irrigation, but when there is enough water in it to do so, they will work with the landowner on reestablishing a fishing hatchery.

Zarn said he doubts they will be back to Dry Fork anytime soon, as the landowner and FWP are understandably occupied trying to solve the immediate problem of restoring proper irrigation.

In the meantime, he said, the club is looking for a new place to hold the competition, but there aren’t a lot of options close by, with South Faber only having trout and being much smaller.

Regardless, he said, FWP has been great to work with in adjusting their permits to keep the event going.

Pre-registration can be done online at https://tourneyx.com/leaderboard/standings/chinook-rod-and-gun-club-5th-annual-ice-fishing-derby .

In addition to the derby, he said, the club’s annual meeting is coming up March 9 at 6 p.m. in the Blaine County Commercial Building with a free-will donation taco feed and another round of door prizes for adults and children.