Photo by Samantha Davis. A participant grabs a fish off his pole during the two hour tournament on Del Clark Lake at the Canby ice fishing tournament on Saturday. The tournament also hosted a 24 hour event, and saw in total about 650 participants.

CANBY — About 650 people gathered their gear and braved the winds for a weekend on Del Clark Lake in Canby for the Canby Fire Department’s and Sportsman’s Club sixth annual ice fishing tournament. There was a 24 hour tournament that ran Friday to Saturday, and a two hour event held Saturday afternoon.

“The turnout this year has been really good. Basically, we got 475 participants in the 24 hour (tournament) with 200 houses,” event organizer and former Canby firefighter Dave Verhelst said. “We had 176 that are fishing in the two hour tournament. Everybody is braving the cold.”

The tournament did not take place last year due to weather, so participants were extra eager to get on the ice this time around.

“It’s just the fun of being out, seeing all the people, and seeing families out fishing with their kids,” Verhelst said, who’s been helping run the tournament since its start. “It’s basically a weekend of camping on the ice.”

The 24 hour participants had their houses organized on the outskirts of the lake, while the two hour tournament took place in the middle. Kids laughter, yells of excitement and the sound of ice drills broke through the wind to showcase the fun that was being had.

Although hundreds are local, there were several people that made a larger trip to participate in the weekend.

Morgan Groenhoff and Aaron Davy drove about six hours from Middle River, and competed in both tournaments.

“It’s been really fun so far,” Groenhoff said. “I have family down here.”

This was the second time the couple has made the trip. Morgan placed 7th in the perch category, standing 9.5 inches long and .38 of a pound.

At the last tournament, Davy had instant luck, and was hoping for the same thing this time around.

“Last year right when the two hour tournament started, I put my line in and caught a decent sized Northern and got third place,” Davy said. “Within the minute that the tournament started.”

Davy and Groenhoff also said they enjoy getting away and spending a few days camping out on the ice.

The tournament also kept live statistics of the leader board for both events, so people could check on their placements at the weigh-in booth.

For the 24 hour tournament, the largest fish caught was a Northern by Rob Eaton that was 45 inches long and nearly 19 pounds.

John Denzer caught the biggest walleye at 26.5 inches and seven pounds.

For the two hour tournament, Spencer Kane made his way to the top of the leaderboard with a 27 inch long fish that weighed 4.66 pounds.

There was also a lot of achievement with the Schmitt family, as 10-year-old Ryson Schmitt said fishing is one of his favorite things to do. He placed 23rd in the two hour tournament with a fish that was 7.25 inches long.

“It’s been pretty good,” Schmitt said. “My brother caught a bunch of small perch, and I caught a perch. It was my second one of the weekend.”

Schmitt said his family came from the Clarkfield-Boyd area, and has been to the event now three times.

“Fishing and seeing friends,” Schmitt said regarding his favorite part. “I just love fishing.”

With about an hour to go in the two hour event at the time, Schmitt said his last hope was to, “Get a big Northern. That would be my goal.”

The tournament gave out a hefty amount of prizes at the end, and also had hourly cash winners.

There was some education and awareness about Minnesota waters people could learn about as well.

Rhyan Schicker and Noah Swart were in attendance from the Lac Qui Parle Soil & Water Conservation District. They were spreading knowledge about invasive species and their effects on fishing and boating. Species include zebra mussels, eurasian watermilfoil and asian carps, which can harm the wildlife, but also lakes, rivers and streams.

“This is the biggest ice fishing tournament around, we’re just here to spread the word about aquatic invasive species, good practices when you’re on the water, cleaning your boat and not dumping all of your bait,” Swart said. “It’s getting to be quite the problem in Minnesota.”

The two were conducting digital surveys to get information regarding the motive of boaters, and giving advice about having a clean watercraft, draining water from your boat and properly drying everything a few days prior to going into other waters.

“Not checking their boats (lead to) spreading an invasive plant from one lake to another lake,” Swart said. “Since we do have so many lakes, there’s a very big fishing and boating culture here.”

The weekend was a big success for the community and organizers. Participants continued to change their bait, explore new spots of the lake, and hoped to catch something until time ran out.

“We’ve been out here every year they’ve had it,” Schicker said. “I feel like it’s pretty popular every year.”