Fishermen take to lake for annual ice fishing derby

WINSTED — Northwest Sporting Goods held its third annual ice fishing derby on Sunday, Jan. 25, at Highland Lake.Northwest Sporting Goods owner Bill Berlinski said that 232 people entered in the event.“This is a group of people who get together to do some ice fishing, and they’re doing it for the right cause,” Berlinski said. “It’s for the veterans. The money that we raise is put toward different things for the veterans, like emergency funds, food for Christmas and presents for kids in need. We also buy the flags for all the gravestones for the vets. We came up with the event because helping veterans is something that was near and dear to our hearts.”Berlinski said that he and his partners have put up flags for years on Memorial Day, and once they opened up the store, they saw an opportunity to put on an event to support veterans.“This derby is very important to us,” he said. “A lot of people came out here to help, and these are very patriotic people that support the veterans. We are thrilled with the outpouring of support. This has been the most people we’ve had so far for this event. I can’t wait to do it again next year. I think it will get even bigger and better as time goes on and more people find out about it. We’re going to increase the prizes and keep it going as long as we possibly can.”Prizes were awarded to the five participants with the largest fish. Brendan Jasenky earned first place and won $1,000 for his brown trout, which was 12.95 pounds and 30 inches long. Kyle Moreel won $500 for second place with his 8-pound, 6.3-ounce, 27-inch long brown trout. The third place prize of $250 went to Alan Brown with his 4.24-pound, 19-and-a-half-inch large-mouth bass. Dan Aparo won the fourth place prize of $150 with a pickerel weighing 3.5 pounds and measuring 23 inches long. Fifth place and $100 went to Mike Pierce with his 3.37-pound, 23.5-inch pickerel.