2015 NYS Ice Pro-Am and Winter Classic Tournament Thread

[deweyicefish]

Thanks for the maps Tim … looking forward to sat…

[Finders Keepers]

Stopped by the bay today and while the first 50 ft or so near shore still has 1-3 ft of loose snow, once you get on the main ice there is little to no snow left. So I think it is safe to say we'll be all ice by Sat. Jeff and I will be clearing a path tomorrow to get the wheelers on and off the ice. We're getting psyched!!

[deweyicefish]

Tim do we have to meet at fire house or just on sat.am ?

[youngblood]

Here is a better contour map.http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/14814.shtml

[Finders Keepers]

All teams are to report directly to the ice access location. Nothing will be going on at the firehall this weekend. All teams need to be at the ice access by 5am (preferably by 4am so we can get everyone out to the shotgun start so we can launch by 5am). Again, I do not believe the bait shops will be open before 6am, so all teams are encouraged to get bait on Friday or on your way there. Looks like we'll be in some rain most the day so you may also want to bring some dry clothes for Jack's afterwards.

[Finders Keepers]

Payout for Saturday will be:
1st - $1500
2nd - $700
3rd - $350
Lunker Pool: Split 50/50 for largest pike and largest panfish based on number of teams who get in it ($20/team taken at check-in).

And if I receive it in time, we will have a 1' Hydro Glow System to give out too.

[deweyicefish]

Team eatme will be there to eat up some $... good luck to all the teams ... looking forward to sat...

[bushyjr]

Team B & H will be there hungry for a win best of luck to all

[upcreeknoyoars]

So to avoid all feasible complications, who won this proposed epic thing this weekend, and who walked away laughing with the huge money package in their pocket?

[bushyjr]

Finder keepers  1st
Gaff lunkage 2nd
Brotherdads 3rd



Sorry if spelling wrong

[JOHN044]

YEP! Exactly why I dont get involved with these tournys..If it smells like $#@$ you dont have to look far to find it.
Lets see if I got this straight...the same people running the tournament that made the rules for it and determined  WHERE you can fish...won it...NIIICE.

[Chi]

Tim, was shanty's allowed for this tournament ??

[FISHFORPIKE]

YEP! Exactly why I dont get involved with these tournys..If it smells like $#@$ you dont have to look far to find it.
Lets see if I got this straight...the same people running the tournament that made the rules for it and determined  WHERE you can fish...won it...NIIICE.

X2  - What the heck is that all about.  I'd call that conflict of interest.
I can see this thread being moderated and locked again!  Don't really care how much support these guys give to this site - it ain't right!  Nothing but a personal gain involved in this tournament setup.

[bushyjr]

No shantys allowed and all walked from weight station/ starting point on ice   

[Chi]

No shantys allowed and all walked from weight station/ starting point on ice

thanks  for the info bushyjr

[Finders Keepers]

We knew we would hear from the nay-sayers IF we won the event and I am not going to go back and forth on the issue. There are many major money tournament events where the directors/tournament committee members also participate: Oak Orchard Open, Wilson Harbor Invitational, and  the A-TOM-MIK Invitational to name a few. There is no conflict of interest because fishing is based upon skill and luck. There is no inherent advantage given to the tournament committee members due to their affiliation with the tournament, and the participants are not forced into participating nor are there any negative consequences for anglers not participating. If an angler doesn't like the format or the rule set, they simply don't fish it. We created this event so that our IPA teams (and others) could fish against us as a challenge to them and us for that matter. We're not panfish fishermen, so if any team had an advantage it would be the others!

The only thing about this event that could give us any type of an advantage is the fact that we held it on Sodus Bay, which could be considered our "home waters" (but then again, how many ice tournaments are not run on the tournament director's/committee's home waters?? I don't know of any other than our series). There are very few waterways we can hold this event on based upon the logistics of running it, knowing the ice conditions leading up to the event, etc., and since we knew we would have some teams coming from a good distance away, wanted to provide the best chance of "good fishing" conditions for them to have on the ice. This area of Sodus Bay is the most consistent at producing good numbers of fish during this period of the year versus any other location we could hold the event. Also consider the fact that the other teams who fished the Pro-Am events on Sodus had the opportunity to fish and scope out that area even more than we did this season. We only fished there 4 times the entire season leading up to the event (we don't fish any of the other Pro-Am events).

To help even the playing field, we added the following to the rule set:
1)  Announced the target area at the beginning of December, pending safe ice conditions.
2) No pre-fishing within that area of Sodus was allowed during the 5 days prior to the event.
3) No shanties were allowed so that everyone would be in plain sight of everyone else.
4) No motorized transport was allowed, except those used to get on and off the ice. All teams walked the entire event.
5) Team members did not have to fish together and could move to target multiple areas.
6) No areas or holes could be staked out or claimed prior to the start of the event.
7) No team could set gear within 20 ft of another team's gear.
8) Any holes left unattended without gear were fair game for others to use.

I think it is also necessary for those who question the legitimacy of this event to realize the preparation we do for most tournaments we fish, so that you can gain a glimpse of why we are as successful at targeting pike and sometimes perch as we are. And maybe this will offer some insights to others looking to up their game too. Here is how the event went for us from planning to preparation to execution:
A couple weeks prior to the event, I got out on the ice with Jake Pollock from Team BrotherDads. We decided that morning to target pike and try to locate some perch in the targeted area.  I made note of the pike we caught that day (locations, trends in the hits, etc.) and same for the perch bite (or lack thereof). The following weekend (just prior to the event) we spent all day Sat scoping out the waterway between the islands to find out if the pike were starting to gather in any particular area, depth, etc. while at the same time try to find a couple areas holding perch. Based upon what we found and observed, we came up the following initial gameplan: Since the pike seemed to be fairly plentiful and scattered throughout the whole waterway and on the move, we expected that most teams would get their 3 pike (it would be a luck of the draw who iced the larger ones) and that the tournament win would come down to who could get the 10 panfish, since they had been scarce all season. So our initial plan was for me to run with the auger and tip-ups to our targeted area for pike (where we had the most consistent bite the weekend before) and drill our spread as quickly as possible to get our pike spread in place. At the same time my brother would follow with the bait and set the tip-ups. After all the holes were drilled and marked with our tip-ups, I would join in baiting the rest of the spread. Once the pike spread was set, I would head back to the weigh-in station where we left all the perch gear, load up and trek across the waterway to our targeted perch area while my brother ran the pike spread. If I could ice 10 perch over 6 inches, I would call him up and discuss whether I should come back to join him or stay and upsize the perch, and if he iced 3 pike he would call me and discuss if he should pull the pike gear and join me to target the perch, and we would let the rest of the event play out "in the moment". As the days passed leading up to the event, I printed off detailed topo maps of the area and GPS triangulated with my phone where our hot spots were to recognize patterns for both the perch and pike. We then manipulated and mapped out what our spreads should look like.

On tourney day we executed our plan to the T. From the shotgun start I ran to our targeted pike grounds and drilled our spread as quickly as possible, although no other teams headed to our targeted area so we weren't really pressed to claim the spot. Once the pike spread was set, I ran back to the weigh-in station, loaded up the perch gear, and headed to our targeted perch area. Soon after getting there I realized I had my brother's jigging rod and he had the spikes! So after a quick call my brother made the trek over to me to get his rod and give me the spikes, then returned to the pike spread. I was able to get the perch spread set-up just prior to sun-up and began to ice them. It wasn't long and I had 10 that were 6"+ on the ice and I gave my brother a call to see if he had any pike yet and if I should come join him. As it turned out, he had already caught 2 pike (and Team BrotherDads had 2 as well - since we were all in close proximity everyone can see when another team runs a fish in). We decided, even though I was pretty confident I could up-size at least 5 of the perch that were just over 6", it was most important to get our 3rd pike. If I joined him we could set out 6 automatic sets as hand lines to add to our pike spread and offer a greater shot at a 3rd pike. So I packed up the perch spread and trekked back to join my brother and put out the 6 auto rods. Soon thereafter we had a flag fly on one of the tip-ups and we iced our 3rd pike giving us our full box at 9:15am! After weighing it in we made some slight adjustments to our spread based on the current bite trends and it was time to make the next decision: should we stay together and maximize our chance at up-sizing our current pike (9 lb'er and two 8 pounders) to go for the Lunker Pike, or should we split back up and try to up-size the perch? Cat from Team Gaff Lunkage iced a nice 8 lb'er and Team B&H lost a monster at the hole (so they say) while we deliberated. We decided we had a better shot at more points by up-sizing the perch (a 2 lb increase in the size of a pike equals a 2 point gain while 5+ perch up-sized could easily equal more points especially if I could ice a couple jumbo's), so we pulled the auto rods and I headed back over to the perch area and set the perch spread back up. The perch bite wasn't hot and heavy but the school of larger ones passed by every 15-20 minutes and I put a couple on the ice each time. Meanwhile, my brother up-sized the 9.01 pike to a 9.75. At around 12:30 the perch bite had just about died so I moved temporarily to our back-up spot for a half hour or so with no luck, so it was back to the original area to grind it out. At 2pm I packed up the perch spread to ensure I could make it back to the weigh-in station before the 3pm cut-off, as the ice was getting very hard to walk on with deep slush areas and a thin crust that you'd keep breaking through. Once back, we used our culling beam to find the heaviest 10 perch (out of the 30 or so I had) and brought them to weigh-in. To our surprise, most teams were able to put together their 10 panfish (our 10 being the 3rd heaviest set) and the pike alluded most teams. For us this was the fewest and smallest pike we had caught all season in that area (and several other teams who fished that area throughout the season said the same). Getting off the ice was a chore with the deteriorating ice conditions, but HUGE thanks goes out to Bushy from Team B&H for helping shuttle everyone and the gear at this event! Dinner at Jack's was fantastic and a great way to end the season with a great group of anglers!

Did we have an advantage? I don't think so. Earlier the best bite was in front of the cove on Le Roy Island, during the Sodus IPA Team event there was a better bite near Newark Island, then when I fished with Jake the better bite was towards the north end of Le Roy Island, and during the pre-fishing weekend it was towards the southern end of Le Roy Island. What does that mean? Pike move around, and just because we did a little better at the south end of Le Roy a week prior to the event doesn't mean squat. We are professional pike tournament fishermen. There are small things that we do with our equipment that all add up to make us extremely effective on ANY waterway for pike. Catching the bigger ones, while sometimes tweaking a thing or two can help target a larger class, is more often shear luck to hook into one and then skill comes into play to land it. As for perch, we did an extensive amount of scouting with our underwater cameras to find the structure that seemed to be holding some fish. Our bait came from the same place most other teams got theirs, so there was no advantage there. So I'd love to hear how we had an advantage over the other teams or how the rule set was stacked in our favor.   

We will be taking suggestions for next year's Invitational event from those that actually fished it, as they know best if there was any advantages or not. Those teams will have first dibs on next year's spots before it is opened to any new teams. Dates for all the IPA events will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

[FISHFORPIKE]

Same old S over and over.  It's not a "MAJOR" event.   I'm done now - thanks for your idea of an explanation.

[boss j]

held it on sodus because of ice conditions...   well here in southern ny we have 18 inches of ice. so i guess thats not safe and the contest had to be in your back yard because it was the ONLY safe ice state wide!!!


i really wish i had my boots on when i read this. now i need to get in the shower, gettin stinky....

[Chi]

Wow, Can't believe the thread hasn't gone to lock down yet. 

[Finders Keepers]

Here are the tentative dates for the 2016 NYS Ice Pro-Am Tournament Events and the statewide NYS Winter Classic Tournament:
NYS IPA Tournament Dates:
Jan. 9th - IPA Team-Only Event (location TBD)
Jan. 16th & 17th - Full IPA Event on Sodus Bay
Jan. 23rd - IPA Team-Only Event (location TBD)
Feb. 13th - IPA Team-Only Event (location TBD)
March 12th - IPA Invitational (location TBD)

NYS Winter Classic Tournament Dates:
Jan. 1st through Feb. 28th

Registration for all events will open Oct. 1st. Thank you to all those who participated in our events this season and good luck this summer! We look forward to seeing everyone next season!!

[Finders Keepers]

We are working to finalize the dates for next year's IPA events. We would like to move the team-only events to some new locations if possible, so we are open to suggestions especially in the southern tier, Finger Lakes, and Albany areas. Even  if we don't end up using some of the locations, we could set-up some recon trips this coming season in preparation for the 2017 season. At a minimum we need the following to run a Team-Only event:
1) Easy, public ice access for teams.
2) Enough parking for 50+ teams (trucks and trailers).
3) Waterways with a variety of fish to target.
4) Support from businesses and local government in the area.

If you have a location in mind, please drop me a PM with the location details. The Full IPA Tournament Event on Sodus Bay will be moved to Jan. 16 & 17, with an alternative weekend of Feb. 20 & 21. We are working on adjusting the payout structure and would like to make it more cash oriented, as that has been expressed by the anglers as their preference. The problem is the cost to run the event and how to cover that while putting together a pay structure. The Sodus Event by itself costs us a little over $4,400 to run (insurance, trophies, gas, food, printing, signage, banners, advertising, new equipment, propane, supplies, etc.). At $30/angler we break even at 147 anglers. One thing we can do is offer a substantial door prize pool where everyone leaves with something, and the winners take home a trophy, an additional prize item, and perhaps a check if the #'s warrant it. Thoughts, ideas? Drop me a PM.

The Winter Classic will be running similar to last year (except a full 2 months long), and we are working on a C&R option for the Pike and Steelhead Divisions. We will be starting a discussion on that topic soon. Now that word is out about the tournament (we have over 1,000 following the tournament on FB now), we believe next year's event will be much larger with a substantial payout.  Any suggestions for the Winter Classic Statewide Tournament are welcome - drop me a PM. 

[Finders Keepers]

Surveys have been sent via email to all the members of the IPA Teams that fished our events last year (one for the Team events and one for the Invitational). Please fill them out so that we can tailor the 2016 events to your input. If you did not receive an email and would like to give us input, please PM me and I can send the survey link(s) to you.

We are lining up our sponsors once again with Frabill, Plano, and Bass Pro Shops committed to the 2016 events already! We will be working on contacting and securing the other sponsors over the next 4 months - stay tuned!!

[Finders Keepers]

Final preparations are underway for the opening of the early bird registrations for for the NYS Winter Classic Tournament (Sept. 1 through Sept. 30th. Registration will be $20/angler during this period plus an entry into a drawing for a Frabill Thermal Outpost shelter) and for the NYS Ice Pro-Am Team Events (enter before Dec. 1st and be entered into a drawing for an Aqua-Vu Micro Plus underwater camera system). Click on the registration links off the websites at:
www.NYSwinterclassic.c om
www.NYSiceproam.com