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#1
I
ce fishing might seem to be a solitary
sport, practiced only by reclusive people
holed up in cramped shelters on desolate lakes. But a visit to the Brainerd Jaycees
Ice Fishing Extravaganza on Gull Lake
reveals a far more social side of ice fishing.
Each February Jaycees hold one of the
nation's largest ice-fishing contests. For
three hours, without benefit of shelter,
thousands of anglers cluster a r o u n d ice
holes drilled about 15 feet apart on Holein-the-Day Bay on Gull Lake. At the center
of the square mile of angling action is a
conglomeration of tents and booths that,
like a mini-state fair, attracts participants
and spectators to eat fried food and browse
the latest outdoor gear.
If the weather is bearable, this temporary
community on ice supports a population of
about 14,500—outnumbering the population of nearby Brainerd by about 500.
Volunteers set up warming tents, food
booths, and the fish weigh-in area in the
three days before the tournament. Hours
b e f o r e t h e contest b e g i n s at n o o n on
Saturday, 460 volunteers or m o r e dash
around the fishing zone, creating a blur of
flying ice and a din of engine noise as they
drill a grid of about 24,000 holes.
Ice thickness ranges from 14 inches to
2 feet, and holes are 10 to 12 inches wide,
according to Bob Slaybaugh, one of hundreds who help organize the event. If the
ice is less than 14 inches thick, the event
is postponed, which happened only once
Jason Abraham is a contributing editor to
the Conservation Volunteer and staff writer
for the DNR divisions of Ecological Services
and Fish and Wildlife. He occasionally ice
fishes on the Mississippi River.
12
BILL L I N D N E R
(2002) in the contest's 15-year history.
At the contest, at local businesses, or
online, anglers purchase a $35 ticket to fish
in one hole, or two tickets to fish two holes.
(State law prohibits ice angling with more
than two lines.)
At 9 a.m. anglers are allowed to enter the
fishing zone to select a hole. Once anglers
claim a hole, they stay nearby. At noon a cannon blasts, and contestants begin to fish.
"It's a strange sight: Everyone's moving
MINNESOTA CONSERVATION VOLUNTEER
Fins a n d
Feathers
V o l u n t e e r s release
rock doves t o signal
t h e o p e n i n g o f O n Ice
Olympics, an event for
kids at the Brainerd
Jaycees Ice F i s h i n g
Extravaganza.
around and talking until just before noon.
Then it gets dead quiet and everyone just
stares d o w n their hole," Slaybaugh said.
"That lasts until people start catching fish
and running to the weigh-in area."
Lucky anglers rush their catch to be
weighed by volunteers, w h o write t h e
anglers name and the fish weight on a large
board. During the first 15 minutes of the
contest, the line to register a fish can be 200
yards long, according to Slaybaugh. Anglers
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2 0 0 5
who catch the largest 150 fish registered by
3 p.m. win prizes ranging from a pickup
truck and all-terrain vehicles to ice augers,
GPS units, depthfinders, and cash. Local
businesses donate many of the prizes.
Besides prizes, p e o p l e c o m e to fish
simply for the f u n of it. "We had people
f r o m 27 states a n d n i n e c o u n t r i e s last
year," Slaybaugh said. "People just want
to participate in something so unique. It's
really a festival atmosphere on the ice."
13
Last year the contest raised funds for
Confidence Learning Center, a nonprofit
outdoor education center for people with
developmental disabilities, as well as other
local charities and community programs.
ICE K I N G
Though ice fishing is found from New
York to Alaska, Minnesota is clearly king
of the ice-fishing contest. According to
Department of Natural Resources records,
ice-fishing contests attracted 90,538 participants in 2003—52 percent of the states total
number of tournament fishing contestants
for the year.
In a d d i t i o n to the B r a i n e r d event,
Minnesota hosts two other high-profile
ice-fishing contests. The International
E e l p o u t Festival in W a l k e r a t t r a c t s
P H O T O G R A P H S BY N O E L V I C K
thousands of anglers to Leech Lake. The
Golden Rainbow Ice Fishing Contest on
Forest Lake last year drew about 4,000
anglers.
A group of Minnesota-based ice-fishing
businesses called Ice Team sponsors a
series of five ice-fishing contests in five
states, including Minnesota. They offer
professional-level cash prizes to attract the
nation's top ice anglers. The top angling
teams then compete in the North American
Ice Fishing Championship.
"We're trying to raise the profile of ice
fishing. Anglers from local communities
get a chance to watch and learn f r o m
professional ice anglers, which hopefully
results in more interest in the sport," said
Noel Vick, communications director for
Ice Team.
B A C K TO THE ' 3 0 S
Minnesota's ice-fishing contest traditions go
back to at least the 1930s, when the St. Paul
Winter Carnival held annual ice-fishing
contests on White Bear Lake. Historically,
ice-fishing contests were fundraisers for
local rod and gun clubs, according to Dave
Genz, a leading promoter of ice fishing since
the 1970s.
"The sport didn't get much attention until
Bert Momsen started the Golden Rainbow
contest on White Bear Lake," Genz said.
"That contest raised the ante by offering big
prizes. It got people's attention."
For 17 years starting in 1981, Momsen
made his living by organizing the contest,
held for the first four years on White Bear
Lake and, in the remaining years, on Forest
Lake. Anglers bought a ticket that gave them
a chance to collect $ 100,000 by catching one
of three to five rainbow trout that Momsen
had released into the lake under the watchful eyes of city officials and DNR Fisheries
staff the day before the contest. Momsen
said the DNR granted permission to release
the rainbows, which would probably not
survive the warm water during the summer
if they were not caught during the contest.
Momsen also offered prizes for the largest
fish of the day.
To prevent anglers from trying to claim
the grand prize with a substitute trout,
Momsen had each trout photographed
prior to its release. No angler ever caught the
"golden rainbow" trout during the contests,
Team Sport
Ice T e a m , a g r o u p o f i c e - f i s h i n g b u s i n e s s e s ,
s p o n s o r s a five-state series o f contests,
w h e r e anglers c o m p e t e for cash.
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2 0 0 5
although someone almost always caught the
fish after the contest, Momsen said.
Momsen never worried about paying off
the $100,000 prizes because an insurance
policy through Lloyd's of London would
have covered the cost. Nevertheless, he said,
the stress of trying to make a living by holding an ice-fishing contest eventually forced
him out of the business.
" T h e w h o l e year's i n c o m e c a m e
down to a three-hour event in the dead
of winter. Everything depended on the
weather," Momsen said. "My wife gave me
a lot of encouragement—to get out of the
business!"
The Golden Rainbow contest wasn't held
for several years after Momsen quit in 1998.
Recently, however, the Hopkins Jaycees have
been holding it on Forest Lake.
EELPOUT M A D N E S S
Just before Momsen started the Golden
Rainbow contest, another angling entrepreneur started the International Eelpout
Festival in Walker on Leech Lake, a contest
in mock tribute to the burbot (Lota lota).
Eelpout, as the name suggests, are eel-like
fish with mucus-covered, mottled skin,
and a single dorsal fin that runs almost
the entire length of the serpentine body.
T h o u g h many anglers abhor their odd
appearance and penchant for stealing bait,
eelpout are good to eat and an important
food source for northern pike and walleye.
Eelpout are most c o m m o n l y f o u n d in
large, northern Minnesota lakes, including
Lake Superior.
Ken Bresley, who moved to Walker after
purchasing a sporting goods store there in
1977, got the idea for the festival while fishing. "I caught an eelpout," he said. "Being
15
from Chicago, I'd never seen such a thing."
The festival, now in its 26th year, quickly became a media favorite, according to
Bresley. Just before the contests second year,
W C C O s Boone and Erickson interviewed
Bresley on their radio show.
"That was a big turning point," Bresley
said. "Attendance went f r o m 400 to 500
in the first year to nearly 1,000." Since
then, the festival has grown, luring up to
10,000 participants and the national press,
including The Wall Street Journal, National
Geographic, and Sports Illustrated.
Rather than fish in the open or f r o m
typical ice-fishing shelters, many eelpout
c o n t e s t a n t s set up elaborate " e n c a m p ments," which range f r o m campers fanT O P P H O T O G R A P H BY P A U L S T A F F O R D , M I N N E S O T A O F F I C E OF T O U R I S M
cifully decorated with plastic palm trees
to two-story fishing palaces built f r o m
plywood.
To visit n e i g h b o r i n g e n c a m p m e n t s ,
some anglers devise "eelpout touring vehicles," such as a motorized picnic table, a
snowmobile fitted with a boat, or a toilet
on skis.
Prizes go to the most original and elaborate encampments, as well as to the angler
who catches the weekends largest eelpout,
usually 11 to 12 p o u n d s , according to
Bresley. Prizes also go to the individual
who catches the most eelpout (303 pounds
last year) and to the team that catches the
most (321 pounds last year).
The festival also lures nonanglers to the
ice. A 2003 study by a St. John's University
student estimated that 60 percent of those
w h o p u r c h a s e eelpout festival b u t t o n s
don't actually fish. With the buttons, they
gain entrance into the contest as well as
to community events such as a dance and
a car race.
In 2002 Bresley sold the rights to the
contest name and logo.
PERMIT TO FISH
Minnesota ice-fishing-contest organizers
must apply for a permit from the DNR if
the entry fee is more than $25, if the number
of participants is more than 150, if prizes
exceed $25,000, or if the target species is
trout. DNR permits are free. State law also
requires a permit from the county sheriffs
office for any competitive event. Organizers
must also file a report with the DNR after
the event.
"We issue p e r m i t s a n d m o n i t o r icefishing contests to gauge the recreational
use of lakes in wintertime and help avoid
conflicts between recreational interests,"
said A1 Stevens, who coordinates the DNR
Fishing Carnival
W h e n they're not p u r s u i n g 'pout, anglers
a t t h e International E e l p o u t Festival m i g h t
take a dip, g o for a spin in a n "eelpout
t o u r i n g " v e h i c l e , o r p o s e in c o s t u m e .
P H O T O G R A P H S BV B R A D V E E N S T R A , M U L T I I M A C E S
fishing-contest permit program. "If there
are too m a n y ice-fishing contests being
held on a given lake, we can recognize the
conflict earlier and help suggest ways to
alleviate the situation."
Last year the DNR issued 82 ice-fishing
contest permits, up from 68 in 2003 and 58
in 2002 and 2001.
"We're definitely seeing an increase in the
numbers of ice-fishing contests," Stevens
said. "That probably reflects an increasing
interest in the sport."
Resource managers say winter tournaments currently have little effect on the
fishery. Stevens p o i n t s to the Brainerd
Jaycees Ice Fishing Extravaganza, where
11,000 anglers caught 1,074 fish in 2003,
as an example. "That very low catch rate
is typical of winter tournaments," Stevens
said. "You have a big crowd of anglers making noise on the ice. It's a great social event.
But it's not going to have any real effect on
the resource."
So far, social concerns related to icefishing contests are few as well, according
to Stevens. "We'll get a call if tournament
participants are tying up an access and nontournament anglers have difficulty getting
on and off the lake," he said. "Ice-fishing
contests are great chances for anglers to
socialize and enjoy their sport without having much impact on the fishery." £