Trustworthy hardware derby!!!

[fishermanjake]

well made it back after 3 days and 1 night of solid icefishing.  My wife and I fished hard, it was slow and difficult.  We didn't manage a strait flush Pike, lake trout, rainbow, kokenee, and dolly/char due to the pike.  One fish short.  We did catch 2 nice lakers at hidden lake though.  My wife took first in the womens division with her first laker.  Mine was 5.7 pounds and hers was 7.59 pounds, just .07 pounds shy of the leading laker .  Nothing more to speak of though, the char, rainbow, and kokenee we caught were all less than a pound.  The highlight of the trip was worth it though and the lake she caught had beautiful color.

[komocazie74]

sounds great, did you get any pics or did they take pics at the hardware store?  when they update the leaders on the AOJ hopefully we'll get to see     it would be nice if there were alot more tourneys like that one around here:)

[Salmonman]

I agree there, there should be a tournament around anchorage or the Mat-su region.

[fishermanjake]

I was thinking that the other day....us iceshanty members are starting to get enough people together and on the same page that it might be posible soon.  Maybe when we get sportsman's warehouse here, or we could talk 3 rivers into doing something next year.  One thing I do know is that the popularity of ice fishing is greatest in the mat-su area.  I've fished all three major areas and there are by far more people on the lakes here on any given day than both Fairbanks and the peninsula.  Before the KP derby the KP was probobly last on the list of places to ice fish.  Anyhow both fairbanks and wasilla have a larger ice fishing customer base than the Kenai peninsula.  Also, they have more people on ice shanty, so why don't we try to get derbies going in both fairbanks and wasilla.  If the little stores put them on it will give them an advantage over the Big warehouse compitition.

[komocazie74]

how thick is the ice at hidden lake? are there people driving on it again?

[Tinman]

there's always that derby put on by Nancy lake lodge (mile 64.5 paks hwy) which runs through the 28th of Feb.

granted, it's not the exciting large fish fishing we all look for but the lake still holds some decent rainbows. I hear ya on needing a larger scale derby though, and one not limited to just one tiny puddle of a lake.

Lets get something in the works among ourselves (Anch/mat-su area) or start talking to places now for next season.