Fishing for Ducks is always a popular winter community event that takes place on Mille Lacs Lake in Garrison. Just recently, the Ducks Unlimited event won a national award that should bring in even more people.

The Fishing for Ducks fundraising event, hosted by the Garrison Wildlife Chapter of Ducks Unlimited, started in 2005 with about 652 fishermen. Flash forward to 2018, and that number has grown to just under 5,000 fishermen.

The increase of fishermen means an increase of revenue, which has now led to the Garrison Chapter winning the number one traditional revenue award at the National Ducks Unlimited Convention.

“What they do is take all the sponsorship money, the major donor money out of the equation and basically it’s membership money, raffles, silent auction, all that kind of stuff rolled into one, and Fishing for Ducks was highest netting event in for Ducks Unlimited in the nation,” said Fishing for Ducks Contest Director Greg Erickson.

This award not only means a lot for Erickson, but it means a lot to the community as well.

“We start planning next year’s event the day after the event we have for this year; we have 200-250 people that help us out, too,” said Erickson.

For Erickson, the announcement of the Fishing for Ducks award came from some familiar faces, and he was beyond ecstatic when he heard the great news.

“Actually, some of our volunteers who worked the event were at the national convention in Honolulu this year, and we were getting texts and calls right away, of course; we’ve got a lot of awards from this chapter over the years, none make me more proud than this one; it’s just crazy, it’s just really something,” said Erickson.

This year’s Fishing for Ducks event takes place on Saturday, February 15th. If you want to learn more information about the event, you can go online at www.fishingforducks.org/.

By — Chaz Mootz