Two teams in the Western Hockey League hung out the “Gone Fishin’” sign and trotted out alternate identities for their New Year’s Day matchup.

The Brandon Wheat Kings became the Wheat City Walleye for the day while the Swift Current Broncos became the Lake Diefenbaker Slough Sharks when they faced off as Westoba Place in Brandon on January 1. With both teams sporting fish-based alternate identities, it was only fitting that the winners took home the first-ever Saskatchewan/Manitoba Fishing Derby trophy.

This is the third season that the Broncos have used the Slough Sharks alternate identity. “Slough shark” is a slang term used on the Canadian Prairies to refer to northern pike, which — according to FishingWard.com — are “stealthy, powerful predator(s) lurking in freshwater environments, ready to strike with precision and ferocity.” Lake Diefenbaker — named after former Canadian prime minister John Diefenbaker — is the largest and longest lake in southwest Saskatchewan, and its southern tip is located just 50 kilometres from Swift Current.

This year’s edition of the Slough Sharks jerseys feature a green base with a northern pike holding a hockey stick on the chest. White, black and light brown stripes run around the waist, sleeves and socks. The shoulder yoke is white with a black outline, and the left shoulder has a secondary logo of the initials “LD” with a pike tail while the right shoulder has a four-leaf clover with the numbers 8, 9, 11 and 22 inside. The four-leaf clover is a long-standing element of the Broncos’ jerseys and a memorial to four Broncos players killed in a bus crash in December 1986.

Numbers on the sleeves and back are light brown with black outlines, while the name on the back is one-colour white.

This is the third season the Broncos have used the Slough Sharks alternate identity; previous iterations of the jersey has the same template but with black or white bases. The Broncos also wore the Slough Sharks jerseys on December 28 when they hosted the Prince Albert Raiders. The primary logo was designed by former Broncos captain Taylor Vause, who also designed the logo for the Raiders’ Cobra Chickens alternate identity in 2023.

Meanwhile, the Fishing Derby was the second outing for the Wheat Kings’ Wheat City Walleye alternate identity following a game against the Regina Pats in 2023. Their jerseys had a black base featuring a crest on the chest with a copper and grey hockey glove-wearing walleye biting through a hockey stick. The walleye sat in the middle of a roundel with “WHEAT CITY” on the top, “WALLEYE” on the bottom and wheat sheafs on either side. The collar was grey, and the Wheat Kings’ usual primary logo appeared on each shoulder. A broad grey stripe ran around the waist with narrow copper and white stripe on top, while grey stripes outlined in copper and white ran around each sleeve.

Numbers on the sleeves and back were white with copper outlines, while names on the back were one-colour white.

The Slough Sharks brought home the first Fishing Derby trophy with a 5-2 win over the Walleye. According to the Walleye’s social media accounts, this was the first game in WHL history between two teams using alternate identities.

Both the Slough Sharks and the Walleye are auctioning off game-worn jerseys online. The Slough Sharks auction closes on January 5, while the Walleye auction closes on January 10.