King of the Ice

The Barrie Home Builders Association organized an ice fishing derby on Saturday and raised in excess of $20,000 for the RVH cancer care unit. The catch-and-release event was attended by 500 people.

Anglers brought 100 fish into the on-ice weigh stations for a chance at the numerous prizes that were donated and purchased with money supplied by Direct Energy.

The big prize of a Bob Cat utility vehicle went to the clear winner Mark Gaston of Barrie who hauled in a 16-pound lake trout.


Forty-nine other prizes were awarded including a new Yamaha snowmobile that went to Jon Rouse of Barrie, who was surprised that his .09-kg perch could have brought in such a big prize.

Former NHLer and current host of Full Contact Fishing Kris King said this event was about what was raised for RVH.

“Anything we can do to help bring a cancer unit to Barrie, we will do. You see how this bad weather has affected driving, now think about all the cancer patients that have had to drive to Toronto for treatment.”

King and his family are active in raising money for cancer research but he talked about it being a group effort. “If you have a lot of people doing a little, then, it doesn’t leave all the work to one or two people.”

James Bazely, president of the Barrie Homebuilders Association, was thankful for all the support of the sponsors and was happy the event was such a big success.

He was a little nervous with all the reports of unsafe ice a couple of weeks ago, but as it turned out, there was 12 to 16 inches of good ice throughout the bay.

To ensure that the event will run for years to come, Bazely announced that $10 of the $75 entry fee will be used to reduce phosphates in Lake Simcoe.