Join us for the Rice Lake Spring Fishing Festival May 14 to June 19, 2011!

Try your luck at catching tagged crappie, walleye, blue gill and perch to win your share of over $50,000.00 in prizes at the Rice Lake Spring Fishing Festival, including the grand prize, a $10,000.00 Gas Card from Pioneer Petroleum!

Adult buttons are $20 each,children under 16 are $10 each, and the Family Package (max. 2 adults and 3 children part of the same family) is $40 each. Proceeds are being donated to charity. To get in on Early Bird Draws, buy your buttons now at RiceLakeSpringFishingFestival.ca or from participating Rice Lake Tourist Association members. We’ll be celebrating the opening of walleye season at Bewdley Township Park on May 14, 2011, so buy your button, bring your gear, and get in the game!

Attention Families! Come celebrate Rice Lake at one of our three free Kids Days! Sponsored by Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters Tackle Share Program, simply dress for the weather, come catch fish and win prizes! Tackle Share is loaning fishing gear to children who would like to try fishing!

Here are the details:

• Saturday May 21, 2011 at Golden Beach Resort from 10am to 4pm
• Saturday May 28, 2011 at Hastings Waterfront Park from 10am to 4pm
• Saturday June 11, 2011 at Bewdley Township Park from 10am to 4pm

Adults require a fishing licence if they wish to fish or assist at these events. Come fish Rice Lake — Ontario’s best fishing destination!

Feedback on fishing this year has been great! Reports are that the panfish are on track again and record size perch have been caught. The walleye are doing great as well. Baits of choice are live bait like night crawlers and wax worms for the panfish. Walleye like artificial like hair and plastic jigs, erie deeries with a tipped worm. The bass both large and smallmouth have been active on spinner baits and some plastic jigs.

Good news – tourism in the Rice Lake area has made a positive come back! With the great summer weather and the price of gas remaining steady, tourists have come by boat, cars and RV’s to the area.  Although the stays have been shorter from 2 to 3 days, the trend seems to be to come back again at a later date. All this is good news for the tourist operators on Rice Lake!

Slowly tourism has rebounded throughout the province with vacationers taking shorter and more frequent trips to their area of choice and we are glad that Rice Lake is part of that cycle.  To this end Northumberland County has recognized the need to promote Rice Lake as a unique attraction within their tourism boundaries and will be hiring a destination development coordinator to develop a strategy to enhance Rice Lake as a unique area attraction.

The Coordinator will also work with local tourism stakeholders to development and implement destination initiatives as outlined in the County’s 3-year Destination Development Strategy that will improve Northumberland’s competitiveness in the marketplace, and stimulate local economic activity by increasing visitation, tourism revenues and ultimately more local jobs!

Northumberland Tourism and Peterborough & the Kawartha Tourism initiated a Rice Lake Tourism Renewal Initiative in January 2010, facilitated by Richard Innes of Brain Trust (Northumberland Premier-Ranked Tourist Destination Project).  The goal was to identify the opportunities and gaps which affect tourism growth in the Rice Lake community and then work towards a tourism strategy.

The initiative has moved forward and has resulted in the development of a series of recommendations in  the report “The Rice Lake Tourism Renewal Strategy, Next Steps” June 2010.  This has prompted the creation of a Rice Lake Tourism Working Group which includes tourism stakeholders who have expressed interest in working together towards the renewal and growth of Rice Lake. The group has met twice with a variety of business owners from around the lake taking part and they welcome participation from other local businesses.

Working with Northumberland Tourism and Peterborough & the Kawarthas Tourism, the Rice Lake Tourism Working Group will focus on tourism related strategies and projects that will improve the overall tourism offering in the area. One of the proposed projects is the creation of a Rice Lake touring map which will highlight themed tours focused on cultural and recreational attractions, and will encourage visitors to explore Rice Lake and stay longer. The project has been coined by the group as “Ring Around the Lake”.

If you have an interest in participating in the Rice Lake Tourism Working Group or would like to be kept informed, please contact Teresa Grant or call (905) 372-3329 Ext. 2311.