THANK YOU FISHAPALOOZA HOLE DRILLERS!!!

[Fishapalooza]

I'll be there with a few buddies...are there a breakdown of prizes and what place they are awarded to anywhere? Are all the top prizes for the biggest fish or is this one where 101st place wins a prize too?

Setterguy. Here ya go.

Prize list

[Deitz Dittrich]

i'll be there.. probably will not fish but I will be at the MarCum booth before the event.. Good luck to all the anglers!!!!

[Shack]

Ready to drill some holes this evening! See any of you guys who are drilling tonight and it will be nice to meet Dan and the other organizers of Fishapalooza. See any and all of the F.M.er's tomorrow also, even Deitz I will be the guy wearing the snosuit, snow-boots, gloves and a hat! Should be easy to pick out of a crowd eh?

[harvey lee]

Yes, I am sure you will stand out from 7,000 others.

Maybe a Monkey on your shoulders would help.

[DTro]

So how did it go for everyone?

[Scott K]

Did anyone win anything?

[harvey lee]

A 5.15# fish won the big money.

I choose to fish for a winning fish instead of a fish somewhere for something.

Yes, I got something, a big skunk. I had some smaller fish below but didn't change bait for them.

It was a beautiful day there and it looked like many had a very fun day.

[Shack]

Yes, someone did win something big. I figured I would let some video out of this:

Mitchell sure schooled all us fisherman on how it is done. Could not have been more happier to see Mitchell win such a big prize.

It was a great time. I will put together a video of the entire day shortly, but it was a great experience. To plan an event of this size and have it go off so smooth is a true testimony of how much Dan and others put their personal time in and get this done. They must have met their goals for money raised, because I went up about half way threw to by some raffle tickets and they where sold out. My hat goes off to the entire Fishapoolza team.

From the time we parked at the designated area, the shuttle had us on the lake in no time. The Forest Lake VFW ROTC cadets had the check in down. With-in minutes of parking our car, we where on the ice walking to our holes. Very cool!

Here are some random shots from drilling Friday night. 12,000 holes in 2 hours boys and girls :

The augers being checked in:

D-Rock transported the augers. Seeing almost 60 new Strike Masters in one truck was pretty impressive

I will definitely be attending next year. I did not win (although I think a perch my partner got should have been brought up and weighed in), but had a great time. The on ice Papa John's pizza delivers, the beverage guys and gals, and even the girl scouts had things down to a "T" this year. If you just wanted to fish, all you had to do is sit their and never move if you wanted. They came to you.

Great for sure! Never once did I feel like a head of cattle like I have felt at other large fishing contests. Again, it was cool.

[Shack]

I choose to fish for a winning fish instead of a fish somewhere for something.

Yes, I got something, a big skunk. I had some smaller fish below but didn't change bait for them.

It was a beautiful day there and it looked like many had a very fun day.

Tom, great minds think alike. I sat and soaked a 4-5 sucker the whole time. Figure I would go for broke.

Funny thing was, most of the northerns I heard being caught where off of crappie sized presentations. Even funnier, all of the northerns I have caught the last tens years of my life where on a crappie presentation

Some times the mind just has us following the path of the obvious, while the obvious is realized after the fact.

[fishersofmen]

Looks like a great time, may have to try it next year!!

[frogtosser]

My niece won one of the polaris 4 wheelers, sounds like they had a little mix up with fish registration.

[Scott K]

Awesome. Congrats to her!

[harvey lee]

Congrats to your neice frog.

[harvey lee]

Congrats to your niece.

[jkjkoda]

My daughter Jamie won a four wheeler <frogtossers niece>.She and I were so pumped up so cool she caught 13 perch and I caught 5 we missed one on our 4 inch sucker minnow. What a day!!!!

[Predator]

It was fun to see that young guy walking around with that big check at the VFW. He's lucky he's underage or he might have been on the hook for a few rounds that night, eh?

As for me, I was fortunate enough to pull a pike that went a little over 2 lbs and got me on the first column of the leader board. First time I have registered a fish big enough to win a prize so that was a nice bonus to a fun day at the lake.

How long does it really take to drill all 12,000 holes?

[hobbyfitter]

It took about two hours to drill holes. The bad part is by the time I left they were still missing 5 augers. That's too bad if there are people out there that would steal them.

[Shack]

I heard they where found. The 5 augers where in back of one of the organizers truck who was driving around and helping bring them back from way out in the northeast corner. I am not sure. That is what I heard when picking up my ticket.

jkjkoda congrates to your daughter. That is pretty cool.

Quote:

How long does it really take to drill all 12,000 holes?

If you read back I said about 2 hours. Actually it was slightly under 2 hours.

[Zoob]

Congrats to everyone who won, and kudos to those who helped pull this off. It was darn neat to see that boy walking around with that big check in the video above. :-)

What exactly was it that he caught?

[harvey lee]

5.1# northern.

[Predator]

Oh, I read where you said 2 hours. I thought you may have been joking, though, as I figured it would take a lot longer than that. 12K holes with 60 augers in two hours is an impressive feat! That is some serious drilling. Well done!

[Shack]

Predator it was pretty impressive. Basically the way to do it is go int a line while staying 15' away from other holes. They have you start in a line (pretty much from the center of the area) and swing the line of hole drillers like the minute hand on a clock from the center area. We did have a second shift crew of guys walking around and helping guys when they got tired or needed a break, but for the most park the augers burned right threw the ice like nothing and they are much lighter than even my late nineties Mag 2000. Since we had more volunteers than augers, the double team on one auger works great. You drill ten holes and then your buddy does ten holes, then back to you.

Plus when you would run low on gas, they had guys on wheelers and sleds that where running around to fill you up.

It was very smooth and slick. It is about 200 per person. Some I am sure did more, but everyone I had seen was giving it their all to get this done.

[Zoob]

Here's the winner board:

http://icefishingforestlake.com/2010_winners.htm

Kudos again to everyone who made this happen, this looks like it went off pretty well.

[Ferny]

Yep I'm yelling it! THANK YOU!!!

53 Strikemaster Solo augers less than 70 people drilled 12,000 holes in 2 hours REALLY! Our hats are off to everybody who helped. We even had some guys from Iowa that were in town come out to help drill holes! I talked to a lot of you who are going upgrade to a Solo after using them. FYI D-Rock Landscaping in New Brighton is selling them for $349.95 used once only for Fishapalooza. They are down to 40 left.

With all the work that needed to get done in the daylight you guys kind of caught us off guard! It was great hearing all of those augers all going at once. Next time we'll have some refreshments out there for everybody. The only problem we had was those darn new adult proof gas cans! You end up with more gas on your hands than in the tank! What the heck!

Hey Shackbash I was the redbeard guy helping Dan with all the drillers. I should have mentioned I was a FM-er also.

Thanks Again,

Ferny.

[Shack]

Ferny,

I should of introduced myself.

It was a very cool event and I have some footage from the day that seems so long ago now . See ya next year for-sure.