01-31-2022, 05:50 PM
(01-31-2022, 04:22 PM)Jig-fisher Wrote:
They divide the lakes into 3 zones and then randomly draw and place you in a zone. You have to stay in your assigned zone, but that is a very large area and you can fish anywhere you want in that zone. You can request to stay in the same zone as friends or family, but cannot fish side by side. No they don't pre-drill, you drill your own, but you cannot start drilling until the contest officially starts, which was 7 am each day. You also cannot use a shelter to prevent cheating. It was put on in conjunction with the State Parks dept and the DWR. They had biologists measuring the fish and parks and DWR law enforcement patrolling the areas. Being its first year, there were some changes to the original posted rules, and there could have been a lot better communication from the organizers, but I ended up liking the format. The rule change to allow a fish bag for use at Lost Creek was a good move so that you could measure fish caught in the slot.. Originally they were only going to allow fish over the slot to be measured, which would have resulted in 0 fish being measured.
I'm sure it will be better organized next year and have clearer rules before hand. The money payouts were really good for the top places. There were also raffle drawings for some nice items as well.
I signed up for it because it fishes 2 of our local waters that I really like, and it is close to home. Just gives me an excuse to go ice fishing and hopefully get lucky and win something. I did pre-fish both lakes and I think that helped a lot.
Thanks a for all the great info and details. How many people were fishing in your zone? How did you first hear about this tournament? Did you have to do a lot of moving around to catch the fish you caught, were you about to use two poles? Did you know in advance the zone you would be fishing, so you could prefish that exact area? How far did you have to take the fish for it it be measured? Sorry for all the questions but this sounds like a fun event and it's great that it's at local lakes.