Annual PTFN Ice Fishing Derby

OFFICIAL EVENT RULES

Waterbodies: Peerless Lake, Graham Lake, Vandersteen Lake, Goodfish Lake, Equisetum Lake, Long Lake, West Twin Lake, East Twin Lake, Gods Lake, Round Lake

CFE# - TDB
[email protected]
website: www.ptfn.net

Fishing timeline Thursday March 5 2026 at 12 PM to Sunday March 8 2026 6PM
Registration opens Friday February 20 at 12PM to Sunday March 8 2026 6PM done on the MyCatch Anglers App https://www.anglersatlas.com/
Mandatory Rules Review: Rules can be found in the MyCatch App

1. INTRODUCTORY

All rules have “loopholes”. It is the intention of the organizers to provide an honest sportsmanlike tournament. In the interest of good sportsmanship, contestants are reminded
the “spirit of the rule” will prevail in all judgment cases and the decisions of the organizers are final. By signing this form, you are consenting to all rules written or expressed up to
the final reading at the rules meeting the morning of the tournament. All participants are expected to follow high standards of sportsmanship, courtesy, safety, and conservation.
Any participant who displays poor sportsmanship, violates these rules, or brings unfavorable publicity to the sport of fishing could be disqualified. Encroachment is
considered a sportsmanship rule.

2. GENERAL RULES OF THE EVENT

a. All persons 16 years old or older are eligible to enter for the Adult category and for prizes listed in section 5. Adult entry fee is $100. 
b. All persons 15 years old or younger are eligible if they are accompanied by the parent or legal guardian. All Youths 15 years old or younger are eligible to win main category prizes outlined in section 6 of the rules. Youth entry fee is $50
c. Each participant must correctly complete, sign and submit an official entry form along with all tournament entry fees by the required dates. This can be found on MyCatch
App
d. At the discretion of the tournament director, tournament days may be shortened, postponed or canceled due to unsafe weather or ice conditions.
e. All anglers must possess a valid fishing license and photo identification and comply with all Alberta Fishing Regulations unless otherwise exempted.

3. GENERAL RULES

a) The PTFN Annual Ice Fishing Derby is an online tournament run through Angler’s Atlas website and their mobile app MyCatch using the Catch, Photo, Record method
b) This is a Catch, Photo, Record, Release tournament to be held in the following water bodies: Peerless Lake, Graham Lake, Vandersteen Lake, Goodfish Lake, Equisetum
Lake, Long Lake, West Twin Lake, East Twin Lake, Gods Lake, Round Lakewater body.
c) The tournament will be run using the MyCatch mobile app, which is a property of Angler’s Atlas.
d) Anyone can participate in the PTFN Annual Ice Fishing Derby and it is for all ages. Registration is only able to support individual registration. For those participants sharing a mobile device, participants must login to their own account to submit their catches through the manage accounts feature.
e) Any participant which does not conform to the following requirements and rules of the tournament, will be disqualified and tournament fees forfeited.
f) Target species is varies per lake and list can be found in schedule A of this document. All other species that are caught must be immediately released.
g) All federal and provincial rules and regulations apply to angling
h) Barbless hooks are mandatory.
i) Only participants that are registered are allowed to submit an entry to the competition. No other persons will be allowed except for the pre-authorized written permission from the Tournament Organizer
j) Rules must be reviewed and can be found on the MyCatch App prior to the start of participation.
k) A ice fishing shack may be inspected at any time. There are marked Security and unmarked Security members on the ice. Tournament Officials may enter a contestant’s ice fishing shack at any time.
l) At the end of the fishing day, all contestants must check out on the mycatch fishing app so that the organizers will be notified that you are safe.
m) Any participant(s) who is suspected of committing any offense against the Criminal Code of Canada, will have the matter turned over to the RCMP for investigation; pending results the participant(s) may be disqualified and banned from future tournaments, plus forfeiting any prize money/product if allocated.
n) Contestants must keep mobile phones on throughout the tournament in order to receive communication from the Organizer in the event of postponement or cancellation. Due to the nature of tournament fishing, no refunds will be issued. This is at the discretion of your tournament Organizer.
o) Any participant(s) that brings in a fish that has been fizzed is disqualified.
p) Due to the nature of tournament fishing, there will be no refunds, no exceptions.
q) By participating in this event your name may be publicly visible for future promotional efforts of the tournament
r) Use of alcohol or drugs (other than prescribed by a physician) during the tournament is prohibited. Violation will result in Team disqualification
s) This tournament is catch and release ONLY. Harvesting fish will result in disqualification. All fish must be immediately released back into the water after entering.
t) The use of bait (as defined in the Alberta sport fishing regulations) and the use of artificial lures is permissible.
u) All fish entered for this event must be caught via angling i.e. using hook, line, rod and reel. At no time will fish caught by non-angling (i.e. use of traps, trap nets or cages) be allowed to be entered. Fish cannot be snagged, netted, speared etc. Usage of a landing net to land a hooked fish is allowed.
v) Promoters and organizers hosting/assisting in the tournament operation, their agencies and agents are not responsible for death, injury, damage, liability, theft, fire flood or any loss to any contestants or families and friends.
w) All questions or concerns relating to the rules of this tournament are to be referred to the Organizer or their designated committee. Their decision will be final in all cases. No other person can be considered a spokesman for the rules during the tournament. The contact person for this event is the Tournament Organizer and can be reached by email at [email protected]

4. SCORING OF FISH

a. This event is catch and release only.
b. Each participate will be scored for the longest fish per species measured in centimeters. All entries will be added to the MyCatch online leaderboard for viewing by all participants.
c. This event is for the Burbot, Northern Pike, Walleye, Lake Trout and Yellow Perch species only. Recognize fish species using the information here: https://mywildalberta.ca/fishing/fish-species.aspx
d. In order for each catch to qualify, a photograph of the fish on a measuring device must be taken using the MyCatch app (ie. photos cannot be uploaded from a photo gallery or other source) and submitted for approval. Our app now tags each entry with a unique, identifiable QR code.
e. All contestants must have GPS/location services enabled on your cell phone for their catches to qualify. Your location data will be protected. For more information, see details below.
f. Each fish must be entered only once.
g. Fish must be recorded immediately after they’ve been caught. All fish entries must be freshly caught.
h. For this event, there will be a minimum size limit for all fish entered set at 6 inches or 15.25 cm
i. This is a total length measurement tournament. NOT fork length. See picture below for reference. The total length of a fish is measured from the tip of the nose or jaw to the tip of the tail with the tail naturally pinched. The tail may be pinched to the width of the board or left un-pinched.
j.

Figure 1. Measurement of fish using total length

k. All catches will be approved to the last physical line on a measuring device. If it extends past a mark but there are no physical lines to confirm the true length, the last mark it crosses will be used. If a fish is longer than the angler's bump board, the longest measurement on the board will be counted.
l. The nose of the fish must be at the start or zero mark on all measuring devices and the total length is taken where the longest length of the tail crosses the measurements on the measuring device.
m. The mouth of the fish is allowed to be closed, open, or anywhere in between, so long as the upper and/or lower jaw of the head of the fish is clearly touching the bump of the board or at 0 cm and the fish submission meets all of the requirements outlined in this section.
n. There are to be no fingers placed in the gills or mouth of the fish.
o. Any fish that appears to have been mangled, mashed, mauled, or otherwise altered will be credited only at the discretion of the tournament officials and may result in disqualification for the day or the whole event.
p. Anglers can only submit catches that they have caught themselves. This is an individual tournament, so you cannot enter as a partnership or team, and under no circumstances can you share fish with any other angler. Anglers are free to fish alone or with other tournament or non-tournament anglers, but each registered angler may only enter their own fish on their own app
q. In the case of a tie, the tie break will go to the person who entered the tied fish first.
r. For this event, you must use a commercially available ‘bump board’ that clearly shows the length of the fish. NO tape measures will be accepted. The nose of the fish must be aligned with the start of the measuring board and be clearly touching the ‘bump’, with both the nose and the tail clearly visible in the photograph.
s. Soft/Flexible measuring tapes and Expandable Bump boards are not allowed for this event.
t. If an entry submission comes in where a measuring rule is not followed, such as the nose is not touching the bump or at the zero mark, the fish may still be approved but a length penalty will be applied. The penalty will apply to the observable length of the fish at the discretion of the Organizer. The entry may also be rejected.
u. Tournament organizers reserve the right to adjust entries. They also have the right to ask for a picture sent to them of your measuring device.
v. A photo that does not clearly show the overall length of the fish, including head and tail, on the measuring device WILL NOT BE SCORED. More than one attempt to get a valid scoring photo is allowed. The app will prompt you to either accept the photo or retake a photo.
w. During the entry process you will be prompted for a second photo, often called the Hero Shot, which is OPTIONAL for this event.
x. A third option in the entry procedure is a live video which depicts the release of the fish. This is REQUIRED for this event.
y. During the event, the app will work without WiFi or any or strong cell service. If you submit a fish without any or strong enough service, the app will tell you that the fish has been recorded, and that it will sync up to the server once you return to service. Every fish you log (whether in good service or not) will appear in your app’s Log View (2nd icon from the left at the bottom). If you have fish “awaiting sync,” it will indicate this here. The submissions will eventually come through on their own once you return to service, but you can help speed up the process by “manually syncing” those pending logs (see how here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU-AwLc8OLY ) once you’re in service. The logs are time/date/location stamped to the moment that they were taken, so even if the submission is delayed, the time on that submission will still be accurate.
z. DO NOT EXPECT to see entries show up immediately after you log them. Fish DO NOT show up on the leaderboard until they have been approved by the Organizer’s, so don’t expect to see them reflected on the leaderboard immediately. If you want to ensure that your fish was recorded successfully, check the Log View of your app (2nd icon from the left at the bottom). If your fish is there, it logged successfully.
aa. IMPORTANT: Arguing against or trying to attribute reason as to why any of the above rules could not be followed will have ZERO bearing on the ruling of a rejected fish. NO exceptions will be made. It is on the angler to review their photo thoroughly and submit an acceptable photo based on the above rules.
bb. A great resource is the MyCatch video that shows how to complete an entry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS65wMakQHA

5. Target Species per waterbody allowed

• Peerless Lake: Burbot, Yellow Perch and Lake Trout
• Graham Lake: Burbot and Yellow Perch
• Vandersteen Lake: Burbot, Northern Pike and Yellow Perch
• Goodfish Lake: Burbot and Yellow Perch
• Equisetum Lake: Burbot and Yellow Perch
• Long Lake: Burbot and Yellow Perch
• West Twin Lake: Burbot, Northern Pike, Walleye, Lake Trout and Yellow Perch
• East Twin Lake: Burbot, Northern Pike, Walleye, Lake Trout and Yellow Perch
• Gods Lake: Burbot, Northern Pike and Yellow Perch
• Round Lake: Burbot, Walleye and Yellow Perch

6. PRIZES

There will be prizes awarded for the longest fish caught per species in all tournament lakes by the anglers as detailed below:

BURBOT
1. First Place: $2000
2. Second Place: $1500
3. Third Place: $1000

YELLOW PERCH
1. First Place: $2000
2. Second Place: $1500
3. Third Place: $1000

NORTHERN PIKE
1. First Place: $2000
2. Second Place: $1500
3. Third Place: $1000

WALLEYE
1. First Place: $2000
2. Second Place: $1500
3. Third Place: $1000

LAKE TROUT
1. First Place: $2000
2. Second Place: $1500
3. Third Place: $1000

The first place prize winner will be awarded a trophy and their name etched on to the PTFN Annual Ice Fishing Championship Trophy. Prize money will be distributed via e-mail transfer following the conclusion of the event within 5 business days. The winner will provide their email transfer information to Vernon Alook after they have been confirmed a winner.

6. SAFE HANDLING OF FISH
a. We highly encourage conservation and the proper handling of all fish caught. To ensure the best chances of survival for all released fish, all participants are to handle fish safely.
These are general guidelines for safe fish handling below:
https://mywildalberta.ca/fishing/safety-procedures/fish-handling/default.aspx
b. Whenever feasible, keep the fish in the water while handling as long as possible
c. Cut the line as close to the hook as possible if a swallowed hook can’t be easily removed
d. Have the camera ready prior to landing fish to minimize air exposure
e. Hold large fish horizontally and support its body to avoid damage to the internal organs
f. Do not hold or support the fish by its gills, gill covers or eyes.
g. Use wet hands when handling a fish. Handle the fish quickly and as little as possible.
h. When releasing a fish, never throw it into the water, rather; set it in the water and let it swim away under its own power.
i. The handling of the fish is very important. Any fish released in the lake by participants must be done in a safe manner to the fish. Any participant(s) found to be tossing or throwing a fish back will be issued one warning and then disqualified for the day including any fish already entered.

7. TOURNAMEMENT BOUNDARIES

a. The tournament boundaries will be for the entirety of the following lakes
i. Peerless Lake
ii. Graham Lake
iii. Vandersteen Lake
iv. Goodfish Lake (T89-R5-W5)
v. Equisetum Lake (T89-R5-W5)
vi. Long Lake (T89-R4,5-W5)
vii. West Twin Lake (T91-R4-W5)
viii. East Twin Lake (T91-R4-W5)
ix. Gods Lake (T90-R2-W5)
x. Round Lake