Ice Fishing Tournament

[icerod]

Hey guys I was there also with my little girl.  To shed some light on the subject, the second place team had around 34 ponds or pretty close to that, the third place team had around 26 pounds. You allowed to weigh in fish as often as you wanted, and then place them back into the lake.  My daughter and I had close to 14 pounds which was good enough for 4th place.  we had 99 fish weighed in.  Some may not agree with the rules, but if done right Its a lot of fun, and safe for the fish.  My little girl had a BLAST as well as I.  She already said she wants to be my partner from now on.  It a very well run tourney, and it was a lot of fun. We would weigh in few at a time so the fish would be alive.  I couldn't find the bigger sun fish just little ones but again its the memories that you make with your partner that's important.  I hope to fish it again next year with my little girl and if we get skunked that would be just fine with me. Good luck to you guys the rest of the season. 

[Kevin23]

Who released the fish after the weigh in? How many dead fish were stuffed under the ice so people could keep fishing? Every dead one should be counted towards the anglers daily limit, and when 25 dead ones is reached the angler is supposed to quite keeping them (even if they are alive). I'm just wondering how many people caught 25, weighed them in, had 5 or 6 dead ones that they shoved down the hole so they could weigh in 25 again. Its pretty darn hard to keep 25 bluegill alive at one time, especially when it has been as cold as it has.


Keeping the fish partially frozen or in a bucket of slush, then releasing them is not good for the fish. I will be the first in line to sign a petition to keep these kinds of tourneys off Iowa waters. Weigh in 25, eat them and go home!

[jwm8898]

1st place almost 50lbs, 4th place 14lbs, we were somewhere around 12lbs and I thought we did pretty good.  Pretty big gap in weights, huh.  Winning team weighed in 218 fish.

Anybody else notice that after you weighed your fish and "released" them you could have easily put a couple of fish in the hole and just taken your catch back to your shack only to weigh them again later.

Also there was not a single fish over 1lb for the 2400 or so fish caught.

Anybody know what the total payouts were for 1st through 4th

[c.r.rick]

sounds like they need more clarifacation in there tourny and sounds like they need on site tourny judges when fish are returned to the water. count me out of the next years tourny cuz i thought about it but couldnt make it this year so im glad i passed and saved my money.