Lions Club members Brad Willford, Mark Quinn and Mark Ristau help Game and Fish  employee Robert Keith and Black Canyon Trout Farm owner Travis Krebs stock Lake Viva Naughton in preparation for the Lions Club Ice Fishing Derby on Feb. 17. (GAZETTE PHOTO / Michelle Tibbetts)

The 34th annual Lions Club Ice Fishing Derby is scheduled for this weekend, Saturday, Feb. 17, and Sunday, Feb. 18, from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Lake Viva Naughton.

Despite this winter’s lack of significant snowfall, the temperatures have been just right to freeze a good portion of the surface of Lake Viva Naughton.

The ice fishing derby will be held as scheduled, after the Lions Club team completed an inspection of the ice and stocked the lake with the coveted tagged fish last weekend.

“There is virtually no slush on the surface,” said Lions Club president Mark Quinn. “There is a good 20 plus inches of solid ice and the conditions are great.”

Under the watchful eye of Robert Keith, Game and Fish Regional Fisheries Supervisor, the Lions Club officers tagged and documented five special fish before releasing them into the lake.

Insurance regulations require a third party be witness to the process.

Mark Ristau releases the first batch of tagged fish into Lake Viva Naughton in preparation for the annual Kemmerer Lions Club Ice Fishing Derby on Saturday, Feb. 17, and Sunday, Feb. 18. (GAZETTE PHOTO / Michelle Tibbetts)

The ice fishing derby is the Lions Club’s biggest fundraiser of the year, raising an average of $15,000.

The annual fishing derby is vital to funding the club’s charitable projects.

The Lions Club provides eye glasses to those less fortunate and helps ease the financial burden for some locals’ eye surgeries. These are just a couple of the many local projects that the Lions Club manages. Visit kemmererlionsclub.org for more information about their work in the community.

This year the derby will be hosting a raffle to win a StrikeMaster Lazer Mag LM8 gas ice auger. This is a top-of-the-line ice auger, donated by Strike Master to help raise money for a diabetic alert service dog for Kemmerer High School sophomore Easton Rydstrom.

Rydstrom was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in Dec. 2014. The family needs to raise  $15,000 so they can pay for the service dog. Fortunately, with the generous help of many local residents, the family has already raised $4,500. This money allowed them to submit the application and pay the deposit necessary to get the process rolling. With that, they hope to deliver the service dog to Easton sometime in December.

But since the family still has a lot of funds to raise, the Kemmerer Lions Club has donated a substantial amount of money, in addition to a match from the Wyoming Lions Club. They need to sell 500 ice auger raffle tickets before they can draw a winner. They are almost halfway there and hope to sell the remaining tickets at the derby.  There will also be a guaranteed $4,100 in prize money spread out through hourly, daily and big fish prizes. There’s also the $34,000 in tagged fish prize money up for grabs, so there should be a big crowd on the lake.

Gather your rods and gear and head for the lake this weekend. As a new addition to the event, Sage Lanes Grill will have a concession stand available serving hot food and cold beer, as well as mixing your favorite cocktails. Residents can purchase raffle tickets and register for the fishing derby early at Hamsfork Sinclair Station or Kum & Go in Kemmerer, or can pay at the lake the day of the event.

See you at the lake!