MilleLacs event?

[kwkfsh]

So how did the MilleLacs Ice Leaders event go? Who is the new champ? How was the fishing? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Cyberfish]

The event was great, the bite was not so great. One lady,(I don't remember her name) got into a school of jumbo perch and ran away from the competition with over eight pounds!. I think the biggest fish entered was a 1.5 pound eye, though bigger fish were put back. No burbot entered! wow! Bassputztor wanted to beat me so bad he entered 6 perch about the size of a fathead and a 9 inch walleye! way to go !
Great fun, food, and prizes! Thanks Iceleaders! Hope to be back next year!

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simul iustus et peccator

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[This message has been edited by Cyberfish (edited 01-26-2004).]

[Rick]

Geri Olson won the event with over 8 lbs of perch (10 perch). 3 of those perch were TRUE Jumbos. This is the second tourney in a row where the gals won the tourney.

We do have an almost 28" walleye on video. What a pig!!!!

Those walleyes are on the feed to fatten up for sure with so many small perch and yoy cisco they don't have to move far to feed.

It was another nice group of folks out to have fun. The highest number I saw was 229.

The day started out at -12 below zero, so we didn't get as many at the door entries.

We had a lot more prizes this time and everyone won something. We then put everyone's number back into the hat to draw for the big prizes.

Two children in the 5-8 year old range (1 girl and 1 boy) won the Otter Fish House and the Eskimo Auger.

They entered FREE and were acompanied by their parents.

It seems we are getting more and more kids and the gals are starting to show as much if not more interest than the guys in these events.

I'll let Pete go thorugh the Sponsors again for all to see.

We definitely,
"Have More Fun"

[Dan Wood]

It was a tough bite for us.. My dad landed a real fat 27" out on the edge of small flat, other than that we didn't do much... Tons of tiny perch roaming around just about everywhere...

[Northlander]

Nice Eye!

[Guest]

Basspastor weighed fish and Cyberfish didn't.
"And that is all the people need to know"
Baron Von Raschke

[Matt Johnson]

Mille Lacs was a fun time. The fishing was a little slow but there were some nice fish weighed in and caught.

Here are a few pictures from the event.

Here is bhorn from Illinois with a nice 27.5 inch walleye, very nice fish!

Here are the three biggest perch of Geri Olson's winning catch. These were definitely true jumbos/

I had a great time out there talking with everyone and bringing people around the lake. The weather wasn't too bad and the waves were calm out on the lake, not the normal Mille Lacs chop

Congrat Geri and I'm looking forward to Red Lake!

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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[Cyberfish]

Wow! those are SUMO perch!!

[Guest]

Thanks Rick and to all of the staff who did an excellent job putting on a great time and putting people on some nice fish, BHorn pulled a beautiful eye and took home a real nice Marcum. The staff at Fishers are very friendly, decent prices on bait and they made a real good cup of coffee. Good place to launch and looks like a very nice place to stay. Lots of people won some really nice prizes, I won some hole covers from Stone Legacy, these should be useful in the future. For being so cold it was a really nice day due to the winds giving us a break. For those of you that haven't been to the past IceLeaders events you are missing out on a good time for 10 bucks. Red Lake is going to be a great time don't miss it.

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en kala
(I fish)

[This message has been edited by frozenminnow (edited 01-27-2004).]

[Northlander]

I agree 100% with Frozenminnow! These events are a blast and worth every cent of the entry fee! Heck the road pass, food, drink alone would have been over $15 by themselves. Not to mention everyone went home with some sort of prize.
If you havent been to one of these sign up. You wont regret it!

[Uncle Grump]

Regarding the the pic of the 3 perch in the basket....

Can anyone tell me how approx. how long they were and girth measurement?

Thanks

UG

[Dan Wood]

I heard those 3 weighed 3.5 lbs., but not sure on length & girth. Those are some dandy perch for sure!

[Matt Johnson]

As far as length and girth is concerned with the perch I don't know, but I know that they were each over a pound. And like Dan said, 3.5 pounds for those three was the total weight.

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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Iceleaders
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MarCum
Stone Legacy

[rmh2o]

I saw them and I would say they were 12-13 inchers.Someone else there had caught one that looked to be in the 13-14 inch range.You can bet there will be some big ones brought in at the upcoming perch contests.Hope its me

[mnrstrider]

Yup -12 when I pulled on the lake, almost went home after I found the replacement o-ring for my heater was totally the wrong size, somehow I got it to work, so we were saved. I probably caught 30 perch, none of which were even close to keepable, I could've moved, but chose not to, in hopes I'd find some of those jumbos, twas a fruitless search.

All said and done for $10 this is the best $10 I have spent icefishing all season, I fail at trying to remember names, but they were nice enough to take a large group of people out and put us on fish, and checked back with us several times to makes sure we were happy, if not he'd help us move! Awesome the staff here did a phenominal job of making this a quality event for everyone, yeah the fishing wasn't great, but the set-up and event was perfect. I first thought to myself $10 is such a good deal considering what they were promising before the event, put us on the ice, help us find fish, and feed us too? How could I go wrong? we'll there was only one way I could've went wrong... not show up. I did and it was well worth it.

Nick

[Iceboat2]

I'm the one with the other perch...measured the biggest one when we got home. It measure out at 13.5 but didn't weigh it. Caught most of the big ones about 5-6 ft. off the bottom but had to jig hard to get them to bite. Fished in about 33 ft of water and used whole fatheads, just the heads and waxies. Color and jig didn't seem to matter just the consistant jigging seem to bring the big ones up. Saw tons of little perch but not too many big ones. Very lathargic fish of all sizes...they would just sit there. Had a great time at the contest and would like to thank Fishing Minnesota for putting on a great event. Worth the entry fee!!! See you all at LOTW in March.

[Matt Johnson]

mnrstrider,
It was nice meeting you out there on Mille Lacs. Sorry to hear about your heater. Rick had some GPS spots and him and I took some people out on the lake. You can thank Rick mostly, I just followed and helped out. It was nice to see the following we had when we ventured out there. Fishing was slow but thats how it goes sometimes. Glad to hear you had a good time!

Iceboat2,
I think we met at Fisher's early in the morning before the event. Sounds like you caught some nice perch. LOW is going to be some good fishing when we head up there, see you in march!

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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[Iceboat2]

Matt
Nice to put a face to a screen name...yes, that was me at fishers. See you in March! Keep up with the great reports.