Like a mass of racers who heard the starter's pistol, hundreds of little trout erupted into a cloud of fins and tails and rainbow bodies. In a torrential rush, Dodge Pond - the little lake built especially for the community at Northland Dodge Motorsports Park - became home to a trailer load of fish.
"This is unusual for sure. Usually we bring the fish in and take the fish away at the end of the day, but this was just a drop-off," said Angler's Atlas owner Sean Simmons, representing the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC that delivered the fish.
Simmons was also involved in the many months of planning for this stocking of the human-made lake. (A former gravel pit had a natural spring. A construction team enhanced it to 40 feet deep, shaped it with machinery and added a sandy beach.) He and UNBC worked together with the owners of the motorsports facility to research the environmental conditions of Dodge Pond and tailor a fish program so that a healthy population of trout can exist there for the fishing enjoyment of kids, families, community groups, VIPs, visitors to the auto arena, etc.
"The idea is to have a population of fish in the lake that will grow to the range of seven to 10 pounds, and some smaller," said Northland Dodge owner Brent Marshall, the primary force behind the 100 per cent charitable facility. "There were fish put in last year, but there was some winter-kill this year. We know some bigger ones are still in there, and now 700 little ones have been added today, so we are on our way."
About a dozen kids were there to squeal their delight as the chute opened and the tanks of trout launched the one-pounders into the water. Some were scooped into buckets off the delivery truck so the kids could reach in, figure out a grip on the slippery things, and deposit them into Dodge Pond with their own hands.
Within half an hour, some of those kids had their rods out and were already casting.
It is all part of a master plan to turn the once derelict drag strip out by the city's drive-in theatre into a world-class autosports racing facility and mini-resort. Those plans are well underway. When Marshall and several partners purchased and renovated it over the last couple of years, a lot of that work got done. The race event on this weekend is a prime example of what the place is now capable of, and the renovations are only partially complete.
"We have had a lot of big support come forward, like Geotech Drilling did last year and this year to supply all these fish - that was their donation to help Prince George," Marshall said. "Companies like Myatovic Construction, O'Brien Training, VMC Vision Management and Construction Ltd., Brandt Tractor has just come through on some big help for us, and two companies that have done amazing things here are IDL and Rolling Mix. Those two have put in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and time, all of it for the benefit of the Prince George community. Thanks to them, they took the initiative to check out what the top-of-the-line specs were for the racing surface, and they built it to those standards. Our race track can handle 8,000 horsepower. We're having some jet-powered vehicles come here soon because our track can handle that."
Now he is looking for a corporate partner in the asphalt industry to help the motorsports park construct a road track.
The more the park's infrastructure can be built on donated time, materials and human resources, the more money goes directly into the pockets of the park's signatory charities. The entry fees for the races, the tickets sold to fans, all of it gets distributed to those chosen causes. Marshall said neither he nor any of the partners and sponsors derive any money from the venture.
"We are on course to have the best motorsport park in Canada, and as far as we can tell there is no other facility like it in the world that turns all its income into charity," Marshall said. "That is a model that can keep generating community benefits for years and years and years to come."
The kids wading into Dodge Pond up to their waists, dressed in jeans not swimwear, were indication to him that the fishing feature was the right one for the little lake.
On Aug. 9 the doors are particularly open at the Northland Motorsports Park for a family fishing derby. If you want your kids to feel the thrill of hauling in their own trout, this is your opportunity.
