Lost Creek 1/30

[Jig-fisher]

Lost Creek was the venue for the day of the new Slotbuster tournament. I have not fished an ice tournament since the Lion's Club in Evanston used to hold their annual fish derby at Sulphur Creek years ago. (That dates me a bit.)  But this one appealed to me because it is close to home, and it fishes 2 of my favorite reservoirs. Due to the slot limit, they handed out fish bags to everyone so that you could keep fish alive in the slot and still measure them at the check stations.

The fishing was slow today as well.  I only iced 7 fish today.  Jigs tipped with a bit of chub worked best. (Thats not saying much!) Lots of fish taking a look at the lures, but not committing to bite.  Changed up different sizes, colors and sweeteners trying to find something they would bite. Only got the big middle fin from most of the fish. I did end up with 2 fish that I measured, an 18" cutt, then a 19 1/4" cutt. The 19 1/4" ended up tying for the longest fish of the day. The 2 day event took your longest measured fish from yesterday and combined it with the longest from today for a 2 fish total inch score.  I was blessed and lucky to have 1 good fish from each reservoir come by and actually bite. I ended up winning 1st place overall and took home a great prize of $5000 today.  Combined with yesterday's prize, a very humbling $6000 for doing something I really love to do. 

[bblake98]

Way to go! That is freakin awesome, good job! Lost Creek is one of my favorites too, we'll have to fish it sometime. I'm excited to slip in there in my yak as soon as ice off hits!

[Jig-fisher]

Way to go! That is freakin awesome, good job! Lost Creek is one of my favorites too, we'll have to fish it sometime. I'm excited to slip in there in my yak as soon as ice off hits!

Thanks!

[Cowboypirate]

That will almost pay for the gas you burn up chase them critters. Nicely done

[wiperhunter2]

Dude, you are killing it this Winter, especially these last two days, congrats. How many people were in this tournament and if you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost to enter it?

[Jig-fisher]

That will almost pay for the gas you burn up chase them critters. Nicely done

Thanks Lance!

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Dude, you are killing it this Winter, especially these last two days, congrats. How many people were in this tournament and if you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost to enter it?

I don't know how many actually entered.  It didn't seem to be very crowded.  The entry fee was $100 for the 2 day event, but if you registered early, it was $90.  Not too bad at $45 a day.

[wiperhunter2]

That will almost pay for the gas you burn up chase them critters. Nicely done

Thanks Lance!

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Dude, you are killing it this Winter, especially these last two days, congrats. How many people were in this tournament and if you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost to enter it?

I don't know how many actually entered.  It didn't seem to be very crowded.  The entry fee was $100 for the 2 day event, but if you registered early, it was $90.  Not too bad at $45 a day.

Do they predrill the holes or can you fish anywhere on the lake?

[MWScott72]

Wow, that's a nice payoff, and would make me want to do it again. Congrats on some hard earned success!!

[Jig-fisher]

That will almost pay for the gas you burn up chase them critters. Nicely done

Thanks Lance!

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Dude, you are killing it this Winter, especially these last two days, congrats. How many people were in this tournament and if you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost to enter it?

I don't know how many actually entered.  It didn't seem to be very crowded.  The entry fee was $100 for the 2 day event, but if you registered early, it was $90.  Not too bad at $45 a day.

Do they predrill the holes or can you fish anywhere on the lake?

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.

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Wow, that's a nice payoff, and would make me want to do it again.  Congrats on some hard earned success!!

Thanks!

[wiperhunter2]

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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.

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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.

[Jig-fisher]

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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.

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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.

I first heard about it through an email I received from the DWR.  I am signed up to receive email notifications for upcoming events and other issues such as the weekly fishing reports from the DWR.  There was an email advertising 9 ice fishing contests this winter.  It was one of them.  I followed the link to the contest page, read about it, then emailed the organizer for some clarifications.  He responded and it sounded fun.
There were probably around 50 or so in my zone, but it was hard to tell because I drew the Dixie Hollow arm as my zone.  So you could fish from the east end all the way to the main lake.  There were also a lot of recreational fishermen there as well.  The fish measuring station was located right about the midway point in the arm.  I had to walk about 100 yards or so to get there.  At Lost Creek I drew the north arm and had to walk about 3-400 yards to get to the measuring station there.  (I fished further north than any other angler.) The zones were assigned the night before the contest so you couldn't prefish your zone.  I got lucky and drew the same zones that I had pre-fished. You could use 2 poles, which I did.  I only drilled 3 holes the first day, one for each of my poles and one for my vex transducer.  I don't like my transducer down the same hole as my line.  So I never moved from my original spot the 1st day.  No one around me was doing any better so why move.  The second day was almost a repeat.  I only drilled 2 sets of holes, one set out deeper than my original holes but only about 20 yards away.  Ended up moving back to my original holes after about 45 min.

I have fished all over both reservoirs and have some areas I have done well in at all 3 zones in both lakes, so I wasn't too worried about which zones I would draw.  Although I do have a preference and got lucky with my draws to the areas I like the most.

Fishing was tough though.  If you weren't familiar with the lake, you would struggle.  I spoke to and overheard a lot of contestants talking and there were a lot of people that didn't even catch a fish that 1st day.

[wiperhunter2]

Thanks again for all that info, last question, since you were way up in the north arm at LC, did you have any sort of transport to get to that location? I'm assuming you had to meet at a central location, at the start of the tournament, so that would be a long walk.

[Jig-fisher]

Thanks again for all that info, last question, since you were way up in the north arm at LC, did you have any sort of transport to get to that location? I'm assuming you had to meet at a central location, at the start of the tournament, so that would be a long walk.

I walked, but you could use a snowmobile, snowdog or 4 wheeler.  The only stipulation with those is that you could not park them close to your fishing area.  Again to try and prevent cheating by hiding a fish somewhere. You had to check in each day. At Lost Creek it was at the parking lot at the dam. At East Canyon it was at the general store at the top of the ramp.

[wiperhunter2]

Thanks again for all that info, last question, since you were way up in the north arm at LC, did you have any sort of transport to get to that location? I'm assuming you had to meet at a central location, at the start of the tournament, so that would be a long walk.

I walked, but you could use a snowmobile, snowdog or 4 wheeler.  The only stipulation with those is that you could not park them close to your fishing area.  Again to try and prevent cheating by hiding a fish somewhere.  You had to check in each day.  At Lost Creek it was at the parking lot at the dam.  At East Canyon it was at the general store at the top of the ramp.

That's fair but from the front of the dam that would be a long ride back to the ramp to drive to where you were fishing. I have seen snowmoblies make it down from the dam to the ice but it's pretty steep. Even from the dam to that area you were fishing it must have been a 1/2 mile walk or more, lucky there has not been a lot of snow this Winter or that would make for a long walk. Again, congrats on your success.

[Jig-fisher]

Thanks again for all that info, last question, since you were way up in the north arm at LC, did you have any sort of transport to get to that location? I'm assuming you had to meet at a central location, at the start of the tournament, so that would be a long walk.

I walked, but you could use a snowmobile, snowdog or 4 wheeler.  The only stipulation with those is that you could not park them close to your fishing area.  Again to try and prevent cheating by hiding a fish somewhere.  You had to check in each day.  At Lost Creek it was at the parking lot at the dam.  At East Canyon it was at the general store at the top of the ramp.

That's fair but from the front of the dam that would be a long ride back to the ramp to drive to where you were fishing. I have seen snowmoblies make it down from the dam to the ice but it's pretty steep. Even from the dam to that area you were fishing it must have been a 1/2 mile walk or more, lucky there has not been a lot of snow this Winter or that would make for a long walk. Again, congrats on your success.

I still don't have a machine so I go on foot.  I have walked a mile back into that arm before from the dam so this wasn't as bad.  It is easy walking right now with just a little snow on top of the ice.  Going back up the hill on the return, not so great.

[wiperhunter2]

Thanks again for all that info, last question, since you were way up in the north arm at LC, did you have any sort of transport to get to that location? I'm assuming you had to meet at a central location, at the start of the tournament, so that would be a long walk.

I walked, but you could use a snowmobile, snowdog or 4 wheeler.  The only stipulation with those is that you could not park them close to your fishing area.  Again to try and prevent cheating by hiding a fish somewhere.  You had to check in each day.  At Lost Creek it was at the parking lot at the dam.  At East Canyon it was at the general store at the top of the ramp.

That's fair but from the front of the dam that would be a long ride back to the ramp to drive to where you were fishing. I have seen snowmoblies make it down from the dam to the ice but it's pretty steep. Even from the dam to that area you were fishing it must have been a 1/2 mile walk or more, lucky there has not been a lot of snow this Winter or that would make for a long walk. Again, congrats on your success.

I still don't have a machine so I go on foot.  I have walked a mile back into that arm before from the dam so this wasn't as bad.  It is easy walking right now with just a little snow on top of the ice.  Going back up the hill on the return, not so great.

That area or zone you are talking about depending on where it starts, is the location of two of the largest cutts I have caught at LC, one was 6 lbs and as fat as it was long, the other, likely bigger was lost right below the boat while fishing there last year., so I know that is a good area.

[MACMAN]

Congrats, that is awesome that you won. I contemplated hard about fishing this, but the lack of information kept me away. Hopefully next year the flier/rules will clear up a ton of the unknowns. I never even saw at which lake the event would be held at on what day. Looks like it turned out great and I should have done it. Next year I guess. Congrats again, these derby’s are hard to win. Shows you knew what your doing, had a plan and the skill. Good job!

[Jig-fisher]

Congrats, that is awesome that you won. I contemplated hard about fishing this, but the lack of information kept me away. Hopefully next year the flier/rules will clear up a ton of the unknowns. I never even saw at which lake the event would be held at on what day. Looks like it turned out great and I should have done it. Next year I guess. Congrats again, these derby’s are hard to win. Shows you knew what your doing, had a plan and the skill. Good job!

Thanks!  I actually have you to thank for some of my success.  I read your post on the Ice Addiction tournament and what you do to prepare.  I followed your advice about pre-fishing the lake, which was very helpful in forming my plan for the days of the events.  I also had never used a fish bag to transport live fish, but see them used at bass tournaments on T.V.  Your advice about filling a bucket partially full of water to keep fish alive was very useful.  I always take a few 5 gallon buckets with me ice fishing.  I like to use them instead of pole holders, placing the rod on top of the bucket.  I took an extra bucket with me as well as a plastic soft drink cup from a gas station to scoop water out of the hole. I placed my fish bag in the bucket and filled it about 1/2 half full soon after getting my 1st pole set up.  This worked great, and other than having to scoop ice out of it just as often as my holes, I was ready when I caught my fish I wished to measure.  I would just place the bucket in my sled and drag it to the measure station.

I have always enjoyed this forum for its useful information.  Thanks for sharing what you do to prepare for a tournament.  It really helped me prepare for this one.  A big thanks to you!