Northern Challenge 2017

[10inches of ice]

How many entries were there ? It was packed everywhere. We hit a door prize, a vex. Fun time.   No fish though.

[walleyehunter01]

They said over 1400

[walleyehunter01]

Are they starting to give away knock off brand 4 wheelers

[bushyjr]

With the group of 4 guy we had like 5 flags and I had one automatic fisherman go of was pulling in and didn't think even had a fish because that was a 6+" golden shiner but get it to hole with no fight and was a 18" baby pike at 8:50.  Oh well was good day and spending the night was good in the hard side nice and warm all night and slept in zero gravity chair. Congrats to all the winners

[blackmer826]

Congrats to the winners, several 3lb fish won money, 10lbs was the lunker of the day and paid out $4,500, yes that's right $4,500 in just the lunker pool and the guy won the hour so probably more like $5,000 off one fish. Was their biggest event yet.

For me it was a long day, one flag at 745 and dropped the bait, no flags the rest of the day and I fished alone, that made for a long day. Winds were pretty brutal out there, saw one shanty go for a ride. Congrats to the winners.

[3beagles]

Thanks to all who came and supported us!  It was overwhelming as anyone who was there can tell you.  We actually ran out of 50/50 tickets!  That has never happened.  We are already starting to think about next year.  We may make a couple of small changes to tweak it.  Thanks again everyone and congrats to all the winners.  Once again, I wasn't one of them!
mike

[blackmer826]

Changes??

New PA system?

Bigger parking lot?

[o2rmk800]

Great time. Yea we went for raffle tix at noon an already gone!!  No fish, no door prizes, no wheelers, no worries. Still a great time. Can't wait till next year!!

[TheThinIce]

Great time. Yea we went for raffle tix at noon an already gone!!  No fish, no door prizes, no wheelers, no worries. Still a great time. Can't wait till next year!!

I second that. Can't wait until next year!!!

[3beagles]

Changes??

New PA system?

Bigger parking lot?

We actually bought a new PA system a year or two ago but the wire got broken somehow and we weren't able to use it and had to fall back on the bullhorns.  A friend and I were just discussing seeing if we can get more parking.  But this is town property and we need to run it by them.  We'll see how that goes.
mike

[3beagles]

Great time. Yea we went for raffle tix at noon an already gone!!  No fish, no door prizes, no wheelers, no worries. Still a great time. Can't wait till next year!!

Yeah, I can't believe we ran out of raffle tickets...that has never happened before.  We'll have more next year for sure!  Thanks for coming.

mike

[Davek1234]

this was my 8th year . That was lot people .      4 of us caught 2 pike and 1 perch and 1 large mouth  neighbors next to us won 1st place in one hours with 3.8 

Was cold and slow fishing wise
Parking was  not ideal

sucks they switch the 4 wheelers to knocks

I drove My atv and was stopped to check my regs 2 times while locals right next to me no helmets     seems like they were just looking to bustin certain peoples chops

Over all good time had lot fun   

I hope that the people who went down are ok


Couple suggestions
1. have a back up to pa system
2. Cap entrants 1100-1200
3.make entrants wear tags . Seem like lot people fished in pairs
4. KIds raffle or if the weigh in fish the win something


Be back next year

[Hardwaternubie53]

One flag, one fish. 22.5", just under 2lbs. No money. BUT! Looking at the fish closely, I saw 5" of skin off of his side, with big teeth marks on him. Can you imagine the size of the fish that did that? Wish I had caught HIM! lol Great time as always. Cudos to Dave, Mike and their crew. Can't wait for next year! Thanks Guys!

[TheThinIce]

Lots of organizing and man hours go into making this tournament successful. Being our 15th year, I've witnessed many positive changes over the years based on entrant feedback and trial and error. I know Dave and Mike welcome any suggestions as to how to make the challenge a great experience for all of those coming to fish the Challenge. I agree that having a kids entry is an awesome idea to get our youth more involved in this sport and hopefully keeps them interested enough to come back year after year. Can't wait to see what tweaks there are at the Challenge in 2018.

[o2rmk800]

this year was my 10th year. first couple were up at midnight and on the ice by 3-4am then fish all day and drive home. then I was fortunate enough to get a room at Red Top Inn, and I will never give that up, LOL. I have made a tradition of taking my son the past 3 years and will continue for the foreseeable future. this year I got 2 of my buddies and their sons to go, and needless to say they will be back as well. while we didn't catch any fish or get any door prizes we still had a great time. aside from the parking issues, which this year became rather interesting. I'm not sure anyone anticipated having 1400+ entries this year...... thus the selling out of 50/50 tix as well. these small things I'm sure will be shaken out. I would like the kid division or something special for them. the past couple years at the Walleye Challenge they have had special drawings for kids 12u(4 wheeler for the winner). great job by all involved with making this one of the biggest events in NYS (behind Walleye Challenge) cant wait for Northern Challenge 2018!!!

[3beagles]

this was my 8th year . That was lot people .      4 of us caught 2 pike and 1 perch and 1 large mouth  neighbors next to us won 1st place in one hours with 3.8 

Was cold and slow fishing wise
Parking was  not ideal

sucks they switch the 4 wheelers to knocks

I drove My atv and was stopped to check my regs 2 times while locals right next to me no helmets     seems like they were just looking to bustin certain peoples chops

Over all good time had lot fun   

I hope that the people who went down are ok


Couple suggestions
1. have a back up to pa system
2. Cap entrants 1100-1200
3.make entrants wear tags . Seem like lot people fished in pairs
4. KIds raffle or if the weigh in fish the win something


Be back next year

Your suggestions have been taken under advisement and will be discussed at our committee meeting.  While many people are unfamiliar with the 4 wheeler brand, I know people who own them and they love them.  If you should win one (if that's what we buy next year) and you don't want it, I will pay you quadruple what your entrance fee is for it!  LoL!   Mike

[papacoondog]

Had a great time, been coming up for the past three years.         Changes to think about to make fair for everyone. 1 don't allow any body in the tournament to be on the ice night before.  2 no one is allowed to stake out the ice as if they own it.

[dwaytkus]

This was my first year fishing the challenge.  I had an awesome time.  Went with a group that has fishing it for 15+ years.  I lost a 5-6 lber in the hole the first 15 min. Of the day only to see at the end of the day hour 1 was a 4 lb fish..  
One of the guys in our group won the 2 oclock hour!
For those of you thinking about this event.  Stop thinking and go!  Its a great atmosphere. 

[diamond jig 86]

First time up had 6 flags. one of which was 6.71 lbs to take the hr of 8 to 9.  A start of a tradition with many more years to come i guess my 20 days on simons with only a handful of flags paid off

[3beagles]

Had a great time, been coming up for the past three years.         Changes to think about to make fair for everyone. 1 don't allow any body in the tournament to be on the ice night before.  2 no one is allowed to stake out the ice as if they own it.

While in a perfect world these suggestions would be great, the truth is this "ain't no perfect world"!  There are just so many things we can control and these are not possible.  I do however, personally ride around checking at night for people doing things they shouldn't.  When you have that many people you can't keep everyone honest, but we do try.  And, if we do find someone doing things out of the way, they DO NOT COME BACK!  EVER!
mike

[3beagles]

This was my first year fishing the challenge.  I had an awesome time.  Went with a group that has fishing it for 15+ years.  I lost a 5-6 lber in the hole the first 15 min. Of the day only to see at the end of the day hour 1 was a 4 lb fish..  
One of the guys in our group won the 2 oclock hour!
For those of you thinking about this event.  Stop thinking and go!  Its a great atmosphere.

Thank you for the kudos!  We put a lot of effort into making this a good tournament!
mike

[mike8557]

We had a great time and even got a winner in the 1st hour!!!  Can't wait for next year!!  Regarding not being allowed on the ice the night before- not a good idea since we sleep on it the night before and the night of.  Don't take the fun and the challenge away
see you next week!!!!

[3beagles]

No, don't worry.  If you want to sleep on the ice that won't be part of the changes.  We don't have a problem with that, especially when the motel rooms fill up so fast.
mike