Ice fishing derby promotes family fun, benefits cause

KNIK LAKE —Emma Roehl is an ice-fishing veteran.

As the Wasilla 3-year-old jigged the line hanging from her pink Barbie fishing pole, she chattered about the fish she expected to catch.

“I’m going to get a little mama one and a big mama one and a baby one and a daddy one,” she said.
Tyler Mattison, 7, watches his line for a bite Saturday morning during the Gettin' Jiggy With It Ice Fishing Derby on Knik Lake. (ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman)

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With brothers Kozmo, 9, Jordan, 13, and Jackson, 16, the Roehl kids were among the hundreds to pack onto Knik Lake on Saturday for the third Gettin’ Jiggy With It ice fishing derby. It was at the derby last year at age 2 when Emma caught her first fish.

The weather was perfect, a chilly 10 degrees with bright sunshine, and made for a good afternoon of fishing, said Jackson, a student at Wasilla High School.

“It’s nice to get out of the house in wintertime and it’s fun,” he said, jigging his line. “You just kind of try to attract the fish, I guess.”

What did Emma have planned for all those mama, baby and daddy fish she was going to catch?

“Put them in the back of the truck,” she quipped.

She could do that, or get another boost in the derby by letting them go, said Paul Reed. A Wasilla resident, Reed operates themasterangler.com website and organizes the derby. Catch and release, he said, adds another inch to the fish’s official length.

“This is great,” he said while surveying the lake, peppered with trucks, tents and fires. “Everyone’s smiling, playing, having fun, the parents are helping the kids. It’s really a family event.”

It’s also a fund-raiser for a cause Reed believes in.

“I’m doing this for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and all the money stays right here in the state and helps our fellow families out,” Reed said. “People are very generous when it comes to the foundation. We raised $4,500 last year and we’re going to top $6,000 this year.”

That’s another incentive for her family to participate in the fishing derby, said Sarah Roehl.

“We like that 100 percent of it all goes to Make-A-Wish and it stays in Alaska,” she said. “Our kids get to help make a dream come true for other kids. That’s pretty cool.”

By noon, more than 200 kids had registered for the derby and by day’s end Reed said he expected to shatter last year’s mark of 308. The leader board had one young fisherman well ahead of the pack with a 19-inch rainbow trout.

“That won’t win it,” Reed predicted. “I’m positive about that. I think up around 22 inches will be the winner.”

The top three young fishermen will receive trophies, but all will get a prize, Reed said, adding about 20 volunteers make the event enjoyable for all. Those participating had a hole cut for them and could even get free bait and a pole if they needed one.

While a fun family event, some take the fishing derby seriously, Reed said.

“We had people staying the night out here getting ready for (Saturday) morning,” he said. “We’ve had parents who stalk this lake during the week getting ready for today; they’re going to find the spot.”

Steve Thomas wasn’t one of those parents. His family moved to Alaska less than two weeks ago from Louisville, Ky., and his daughters Abby, 9, and Julia, 7, were having fun in the cold and snow.

“This is our first time ice fishing,” he said. “We’ve only been here 10 days, but we came up here just for this today. Winter here is a little different (than in Kentucky). We’ve been sending pictures back to all our friends.”

The girls didn’t catch anything, but excitedly ran from station to station on the ice playing games, like ice bowling.

“We went ice skating, like, five times, and today we went fishing, but didn’t catch anything,” Julia said.

“What about the bait?” her father asked.

“Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ewewewew,” she said. “I don’t know what it was, but it was yucky.”

Fueled by a couple of donuts, Abby said she also didn’t catch any fish, but gave them a treat when they were done.”

“I didn’t catch anything,” she said. “Then we threw the rest of the bait in the hole so the fish could have a big old feast. Then we went (ice) bowling.”

The change in climate from the Lower 48 to Alaska didn’t seem to slow the sisters down. Asked how winter here is different from where they came from, Abby’s answer rings true for many transplants.

“Well, school would be closed right now if there was this much snow on the ground,” she said. “Once there was, like, what was it called, a forecast for snow, and they canceled school — and there wasn’t even any snow.”

Gettin’ Jiggy With It is about promoting family and the sport of ice fishing while helping a good cause, Reed said. No matter whether the winning fish measures 22 inches or 2, all the youth are winners, he said. And those looking for a competitive edge may be disappointed.

“There’s no secret to ice fishing,” Reed said. “It’s just luck. The fish aren’t too picky; you put something down there, they’ll come after it.”
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