Cedar Lake Ice Challenge looks like a hit

• Craig Jameson

Craig Jameson of New Richmond was among hundreds of anglers who failed to get a bite during Saturday’s Cedar Lake Ice Challenge competition, which benefitted New Richmond athletics.

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The Cedar Lake Ice Challenge appears to be a success in every measure except the number of fish caught.

While there was only one fish caught, thousands of dollars worth of prizes were given away at the fishing tournament on Cedar Lake on Saturday.

The tournament was organized by the New Richmond Coaches Association to serve as a fund-raiser for New Richmond athletics.

While tickets and revenues were still coming in on Tuesday, New Richmond High School principal Jeff Moberg said it looks like the tournament will be a financial success.

Dozens of volunteers drilled 1,200 holes through the ice on Cedar Lake. Estimates have the number of entrants in the tournament at somewhere around 950.

Moberg said, like any first-time event, the organizers learned a great deal about how they want to run the event in the future.

“We had a pretty positive response,” Moberg said.

He said nobody seemed to mind that only one fish was caught in the tournament. Organizers will investigate to see if the tournament should be moved to another part of the lake in future years to improve the odds of catching fish.

Mark Gjovig of Dresser won an ATV as the lone angler to catch a fish on Cedar Lake Saturday. The rest of the prizes were raffled off in drawings that lasted five hours past the competition of the fishing tournament.

“We exceeded what we thought we’d have for prizes. There were a ton of prizes that came in during the last week,” Moberg said.

Tags: cedar lake ice challenge, northland, outdoors, fishing