Story originally printed in the Holmen Courier or online at www.holmencourier.com

Published - Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Despite frigid temperatures, derby winner finds hot spot

By RANDY ERICKSON | Editor

The weather might have been cold — below zero, in fact, not even counting the windchill factor — but at the Brice Prairie Conservation Association’s 47th annual ice fishing derby, Kim Gorka was hot.

Gorka took to the ice on Lake Onalaska — the exact location is top secret, though — and caught the only two bass of the day, including one that weighed 3.57 pounds. That was by far the biggest fish caught and gave her the right to go home to her 11-year-old son, Gabriel, with a little bit of a smirk.

Sidelined from any ice fishing by a broken hand, Gabriel had a chance to go along to watch his mother catch some fish, but he declined, telling her he didn’t think she’d catch anything. And with good reason: she’d never caught anything ice fishing before.

Kim Gorka of Holmen had the big haul at Saturday's 47th annual Brice Prarie Conservation Association fishing derby. Photo by Jason Prinz

“He’s not happy with me,” said Gorka, a Holmen resident and owner of the Children’s Palace day-care center. “Being 11 years old, he thinks he’s always going to catch the biggest fish.”

Gabriel did catch a whopper last summer when he went deep-sea fishing with his family while in Florida, reeling in a 38-inch red snapper. But his mother is one up on him now — she’s caught two prize-winning fish.

Gorka collected $40 in prize money for her catch, but she donated the money back to the BPCA. “It was a good time and a good cause,” she said.

Saturday was the first time Gorka had fished using tip-ups, which are devices that sit atop the ice, raising a flag when there’s a fish on the line below. Gorka and her fishing companion, Jason Prinz, stood outside unprotected watching for the tip-ups to spring into action, occasionally stepping into his truck to warm up.

It wasn’t hard getting the hang of the tip-ups, but getting to the tip-ups quickly wasn’t easy, Gorka said. “It was hard to run with 50 layers of clothing on.”

Prinz might not have caught a prize-winning fish, but he did win $100 in the cash raffle. And he did pick the spot where the prize-winners were caught, a spot that Gorka said she was sworn to keep secret.

“He chose the spot, and I was told that if I want to go fishing with the guys, you can’t yap about where you caught your fish,” she said.

The big raffle prize — $1,000 — went to Carol Marking, wife of longtime BPCA member Leif Marking.

Contact Randy Erickson at randy.erickson@lee.net.

BPCA FISHING DERBY WINNERS

Bass