'Fish or No Fish’ runs tonight

Heather Ogilvie
Fort Frances Times

FORT FRANCES—“Fish or No Fish,” a game similar to NBC’s hit show, “Deal or No Deal,” will take place tonight (Monday) under the big tent at the Sorting Gap Marina in conjunction with the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship.
And it’s not too late to get in on the action as tickets will be available at the door for $16 for adults and $7.50 for those under 19.
Doors will open at 6 p.m., with the first game starting at 7:30 sharp.
“Up until the weekend [ticket sales] were quite slow, but they’ve been picking up every day so thing’s are looking much better,” noted Bud Edwards, director of special projects for the FFCBC.
Any adult ticket-holder (i.e., over the age of 19) has the chance to be one of two contestants to play the game. The top prize in the first game will be $10,000 while it jumps to $25,000 in the second one.
The two lucky contestants each will select one sealed tackle box from 26 cases holding values of money ranging from one penny to the top amount.
The contestants then start to eliminate the remaining boxes, but are tempted with offers from “The Bank” to accept an offer of cash in exchange for what might be contained in their initial one.
Edwards said a lot of hard work has gone into making this new FFCBC event a success.
“Most of the work [that is left] is putting together the tackle boxes—putting all the lures and the line and bait in each box,” he noted.
“And running around doing things like picking up . . . the ticket stubs from Clinic Dispensary, Pharmasave, and KGHS across the river, getting everything organized, and training our sponsors who will be opening the tackle boxes tonight,” he added.
The 52 tackle boxes later will be given away as door prizes. In addition, there will be a grand door prize drawn at the end of the evening: a trip for two to a warm, exotic locale.
Those under 19 are not eligible to be contestants, but they can win the tackle boxes up for grabs as well as the grand door prize.
Those involved in “Fish or No Fish” planned to hold a dress rehearsal this afternoon to find any glitches and bugs, and make sure the whole show runs quite smoothly.
“We’ve held training sessions with our emcee, Paul Morrison, and he’s really looking forward to having a lot of fun with the contestants, [their] ‘advisors,’ the sponsors, and the audience,” Edwards enthused.
He also hopes everyone will get there early because they must be in attendance to have a chance to be a contestant.
In an attempt to make things flow smoothly, there will be a line for advance ticket-holders and a separate line for those purchasing them at the door.
“What we really want to see is people taking home the big prizes,” Edwards added, noting the FFCBC has to pay the same premium to the insurance company no matter what monetary prizes are won.
“So this should be an evening of suspense, fun, and excitement,” he said.