The Annual Soldotna Trustworthy Hardware Ice Fishing Derby was 24 hours longer this year as February had an extra day and that day delivered a couple of the Derby’s winning catches. Scott Miller of the family owned store told the Dispatch at the awards ceremony last week, “We had leap year fish that were winners the last day and the last hour of the derby in the grayling division and the largest dolly varden both came in as leap year fish,” said Miller. Participants gathered at the store for the awards ceremony to collect their prizes and the kids were as happy and wide eyed as if it was Christmas morning. “We had a huge participation this year with over 1,000 fish brought into the derby and half of those by kids. That makes us very happy to see the families getting out together, this has been a family event from the beginning and we love seeing the smiles on their faces when they come in. It was a tough year as far as the weather with the big lakes not freezing up well, but everyone fished safely and the smaller lakes yielded their bounty for all who put in the effort. The pike continue to get smaller and that’s a good thing and I have to put a shout out to the Copenhaver family the Pike Busters or Team Copenhaver as their t-shirts proclaim, they’re something else and brought in over 100 some pounds of pike caught by the whole family and young Chase brought in 40 lbs. himself, so they are true Pike Busters,” said Miller.

Something unique for this year’s derby was the hand carved wooden trophies by renowned carver John Iverson, “John did an awesome job, not much ice out there for him to carve and he came in and said he would carve the one of a kind trophies and they’ll be collectors’ items down the road,” said Scott. This year’s largest fish winner Jimmy Miller started fishing in the Derby 19 years ago in the kids division, “And now he has his kids in here fishing in the derby and maybe that makes us feel old, but also really happy to see these folks passing the love of the outdoors on to their kids,” added Scott. For complete Ice Fish Derby results visit www.soldotnahardware.com or stop by the popular store on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna.