TRU students competing in collegiate ice fishing competition sitting in third place

TRU anglers in third place

Photo: Angler's Atlas

Team co-captains Elias Newport (left) and Torrie Nicholas (right) are among a dozen TRU students competing in the Western Division of Hardwater Havoc.

Give a Thompson Rivers University student a fish and they’ll eat for a day, but teach a TRU student to fish and they might walk away with $1,000.

That’s what is on the line for a dozen TRU students competing for in the Western Division of Hardwater Havoc, a six-week collegiate ice fishing competition between Canadian and U.S. universities and colleges.

Anglers first cast off on Jan. 9 and the TRU contingent is currently in third place with 161 catches so far. They’re being led by co-captains Torrie Nicholas and Elias Newport.

Students compete by logging ice-fishing trips, documenting catches, participating in weekly challenges and contributing angler-generated data to fisheries science and conservation.

Points are earned through participation, species diversity and total catches.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the TRU anglers are sitting behind first-place Brigham Young University-Idaho and second-place Oregon Institute of Technology.

TRU’s Noah Ratushny has logged the longest brook trout caught during the event so far at 19 inches, Nicholas is holding the record for the longest rainbow trout at 22 inches, and Jack Ekholm has is third for most fish reeled in — his 86 catches buoying the team's numbers.

“The team has enjoyed numerous planned group outings and shared time on the ice, building a strong, collaborative dynamic that reflects a true team-first effort,” organizer Angler’s Atlas said of the TRU students in a news release.

Online leaderboards are updated throughout the competition, which concludes on Feb. 19.

Angler’s Atlas said a partnership with the Western Division of the American Fisheries Society means students can earn a micro-credential in Applied Citizen Science for Fisheries Management by completing weekly assignments over the course of the competition.

Students are required to “work directly with past angler-generated citizen science data to calculate fisheries metrics such as catch-per-unit-effort and length-frequency distributions, examine sources of bias, and interpret results within real management contexts” in order to earn the credential.