The Kemmerer Lions Club concluded their 35th annual Ice Fishing Derby over the weekend.  The derby was held February 16 & 17 at Lake Viva Naughton.

“We had a great turnout this year,” said Mark Quinn, president of the Kemmerer Lions Club.  “We got 437 registrations.  We’re up 7 from last year.”

Mark Quinn spoke with SVI’s Jim Thoeny during the event.  You can hear the full conversation here.

Fisherman came from all over the country to participate, including Nebraska, Texas, New Hampshire, Georgia and Montana.

Jalen Mills from Kemmerer (pictured above) won the kids division of the derby.  Kristy Smith was the woman’s winner and Michael Corgiat from Sunset, Utah was the overall winner with a 23 1/4 inch trout.

Quinn estimated that the event raised about $13,000 for the Lions Club.  The proceeds are used for local service projects in the Kemmerer area.  The most recent project from the Kemmerer Lions Club funded a service dog for a local youth with severe diabetes.

Easton Rydstrom was the recipient of the dog on January 21 of this year.

“He alerts on point all the time,” said Rydstrom.  “We had an experience in Pinedale where I was in the pool warming up for a meet and he was howling and was standing up and wasn’t listening to everyone telling him to lay down.   So I had to hop out and I was going low.  So he helped me out that day.”

You can hear the full conversation between Easton and SVI’s Jim Thoeny here.