Ice Addiction Tournament

[MACMAN]

Tell me more about how this works?  Do they drill a grid and you get assigned a hole to fish, or is this one that you pick your own spots?  Can you use electronics and your gear, or are you limited in what you can take on the ice?  Thanks just curious how it works.. Thanks Jeff

I've been talking to Macman for the last few years about this and from what he has told me, the earler you get there  the better your selection of holes, the later you get there the worse, depending on how you look at it. I don't want to give away any of his secrets, so you might have to PM him and to how he picks his holes but he and his son seem to do pretty good in most years. They do drill a grid but it's first come first served, unless they have changed it since last year.

Yes, the grid is pre drilled with far more holes than they have registered. You can move to open holes all you want. You enter the grid based on the assigned group you have at registration, which is determined by registration order. I think they are in group C right now. I’m not sure how many are in a group- guessing somewhere between 50-100. The holes are spaced around 25’ apart. When I helped drill, we punched 1600 holes. There were plenty to choose from. No tents are allowed, but electronics are ok and in my opinion necessary. Cheating would be nearly impossible in this format. If you are able to catch a trout at Rockport, you’ll likely finish in the money. At Steinaker last year, I got 21 in the four hour tourney. You had to be selective on what you weighed. The strategy will vary from lake to lake. 

WH is correct. We have done really well in this. I think my group have placed in 7/8 that we have fished in. I don’t think we really have a secret. It’s trout…all of us can catch a trout. We always prefish. You aren’t going to see a bunch of fish in the 4 hours, but if you know the pattern you have a distinct advantage when and if a fish shows up. If you already know the lake, it probably isn’t necessary. Paying attention every second is probably the most important thing. These fish are freaked out from the drilling and commotion. You aren’t going to get a bunch of chances to make up for missed opportunities. Take everything you have learned from those beautiful sunny warm days where your the only soul on the ice and go win $7,500 bucks. Location in the grid isn’t as important as you may think. I’ve seen a bunch of fish measured from every spot in the grid.