2003 North American Ice Fishing Championship Results

Ice Team crowns new champions – Minnesotans earn $10,000
50 Teams from 9 States compete at the North American Ice Fishing Championship

Alexandria, MN––A pair of central Minnesota anglers claimed the $10,000 check and matching gold rings by winning the second North American Ice Fishing Championship Dec. 21 on Lake Ida near Alexandria, Minnesota.

Joe Honer, St. Cloud, and Ray Legatt, Rice, won because they were able to locate a spot holding good-sized crappies to go with the lake's abundant sunfish. Each team could weigh in seven sunfish and seven crappies at the conclusion of the event, which ran from 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. on "Little Ida" a bay on the northwest corner of the lake, out from Betsy Ross Resort, which served as tournament headquarters. 

The 'Championship' field was made up of 50 two-person teams that qualified by finishing in the top 10 at last winter's Trap Attack Opens, put on by Ice Team. "These people are the best ice fishermen in North America," said Dennis Clark, Ice Team Director. "They've proven it in competition, and you can see it just by watching them in action."

In spite of the talent level, most contestants struggled to find and catch any numbers of crappies. Honer and Legatt found a gradual slope along the shoreline break just east of Betsy Ross Resort, and knew the area held catchable numbers of both crappies and sunfish in the coontail weeds in 7-9 feet of water.

"We caught 'em there in practice," said Honer, "and then we left the area alone right before the tournament. Fortunately, the wind blew snow over our old holes and nobody found them."

The pair fished virtually alone during tournament hours, putting an event limit of nice crappies in their water-filled bucket right away. (In the clear waters of Ida, the best 'bite' for mature crappies typically comes at dawn, dusk, and even after dark, so the contestants were further challenged to trigger bites from any crappies they did find at midday.) After that, they culled through numerous sunfish and several bonus crappies as weigh-in time neared.

Legatt explained that they used a mid-sized ice jig (#6 hook), tipping it with two 'spikes' (maggots) and one wax worm. "We always used both," he said. "What we found in practice was that they'd always bite a wax worm, but the fluttering of the spikes seemed to do the best job of bringing the fish in."

The jigs allowed for a 'horizontal' presentation, considered by top ice anglers to be a key. The winners were sight fishing, meaning they would sit inside their darkened portable shelters and watch the fish in the clear water. They'd drop quickly through the first two or three feet, then begin 'pounding' the jig (a technique made popular by Ice Team Captain Dave Genz, where you create a steady, strong, rapid set of vibrations at the bait with short movements of the wrist), lowering it into the depth where most of the fish came from.

"When we first started," said Honer, "it was dark enough that you couldn't see the fish, so we were using glow jigs and just watching for the glowing head to disappear. That's how we got most of our crappies."

Honer and Legatt's bucket of 14 fish weighed 6.58 pounds.

Runners-up Dale Erath, Huntley, IL, and Mark Bauer, Lake in the Hills, IL, fished both deep and shallow for their tournament limit of crappies and sunfish.

"We found most of our crappies right along a ledge that went from 17 to about 20 feet," said Erath. "We stayed right on the shady side of that ledge, and just moved up and down it until we found fish."

After the early crappie bite slowed, they moved into 7-9 feet of water on an expansive weed flat just west of the Betsy Ross Resort. There, they put together an impressive catch of sunfish and enough kicker crappies to have seven of each come weigh time.

Erath and Bauer's catch totaled 6.28 pounds.

This team relies exclusively on miniature plastic tails rather than live bait, especially in clear water. Even in the deeper water during the low-light conditions of early morning, they used Techni-Glo tails (made by Lindy) to entice crappies and sunfish.

They thread the finesse plastics onto the end of an ice jig, positioning the plastic at a 90-degree angle to the hook. They then swim the offering, letting the tail twitch.

"It does a lot with minimal jigging," explained Bauer. "You have to get that plastic on there straight. If those tails weren't on there right, the fish would look at it but wouldn't hit it. Sometimes, you could bring it up, fix it, put it back down, and the same fish would take it."

Another key, in their minds, was to move often from hole to hole. "You have to keep moving," says Erath. "Once you catch some fish in one hole, if you stop seeing them or catching them, you need to move on. We even made big moves, from one area to another."

Indiana anglers John Corl and Fred Welter were the only other team to catch seven crappies. They finished third, with a total weight of 5.74 pounds.

Notes: a total of nine states were represented at the North American Ice Fishing Championship. Rules meetings and other gatherings were held at the Holiday Inn in Alexandria. A large media contingent was present, including television stations, North American Fisherman television, Midwest Outdoors television, and most major magazines that cover ice fishing. The Trap Attack Open trail will make six stops this winter, beginning Jan 11 in Brooklyn, MI and Devils Lake, ND. 

The Trap Attack Open series is only part of Ice Team’s mission to promote ice fishing and educate its participants. Call 763.231.4129 for more information or go to www.iceteam.com. Ice Team is funded by its partners: Clam Corporation, StrikeMaster, Vexilar, Aqua-Vu, Lindy, and Arctic Cat.