Pike Lake near Duluth

I am fishing in the contest up there this Sunday. Anybody else? I have never fished it before, so I don’t know what to expect.

I fished the Duluth’s Big Jig contest several years ago.

A local won it with some variety of sucker. I think it

weighed just over a pound.

I haven’t been back since.

So bring a can of corn and good luck!!

First, thank you for supporting UMD athletics. Our fine hockey team can use all the help it can get.

Pike lake is full of northerns and that is what I would target. Good luck!

Sully

Thanks for the information.

My love of Gopher hockey has me cosidering asking for my money back.

Tourney recap: The Big Jig ice contest was a huge success for Team Fife. On Saturday my buddy and I hit this classic deep northern Minnesota lake to do some prefishing. We were armed with a couple augers, flashers, underwater cameras, GPS, and a few jigging poles. The goal was to cover a lot of water in search of any fish and maybe some bigger fish. We traded off drilling and marking depths until we had a hundred or so holes all around the to be tournament area. We used the camera to figure out bottom compositions, look for structure, and find some fish. After eliminating a lot of water we focused our fishing on 3 areas. I used a flashy buckshot rattle spoon to draw in numbers of fish and pick off some aggressive fish. In 1.5 hours of fishing we iced a half dozen qualifying fish and felt confident about our game plan.

On Sunday I found a hole 10 feet from my hole the day before, so I set up shop there. My buddy and brother chose holes 20 yards away from me. 15 minutes prior to the noon start time I dropped the flasher down to see a few fish cruising a foot off the bottom. The horn sounded, I dropped my line, and it was fish on. I had the first fish of the tourney at .185 pounds. On my run back, I passed my buddy who was icing a .31 pound perch. I returned to my hole, dropped my jig, and set the hook into a .285 pound perch. My brother and buddy were also at the weigh station with a couple more little perch. The bite ended fast in our area. I mean the flasher went blank. I ran over to my second spot. Immediately I was seeing fish, but they were not biting. I finally dialed in a presentation, but all the fish were small. That was the story for the rest of the tournament. I stayed on fish, worked hard to trigger a bite, and only caught small ones. The top prize a new Scion was taken with a 2.65 pound sucker. The next three winners were suckers followed by 10 or so crappies around a pound. My buddy’s .31 pound perch took home 48th place and my fish took home 62nd. We both ended up with $150 worth of gifts. The tournament was very well run and a lot of fun. They gave away great prizes all the way to 100th place. A .23 pound perch took home $1000 for 100th place.

I took this picture of the tournament area 1 hour prior to the start. I would estimate the turnout at 2000 people.

Here’s me with a half hour left in the tournament. I was hole hopping the entire time, so I stole my buddies pink chair and decided to relax for awhile.

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Here’s me with a half hour left in the tournament. I was hole hopping the entire time, so I stole my buddies pink chair and decided to relax for awhile.

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SURE its your buddy,s PINK chair…….heard that story before…

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Here’s me with a half hour left in the tournament. I was hole hopping the entire time, so I stole my buddies pink chair and decided to relax for awhile.

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You had that chair at the Mille Lacs GTG. Nice flasher by the way
When and where is my cut

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SURE its your buddy,s PINK chair…….heard that story before…

You had that chair at the Mille Lacs GTG. Nice flasher by the way

When and where is my cut

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It wasn’t mine and the only chair I used at the GTG was a Hunter’s bar stool.

Ron, how about I hold on to the flasher and you can just use it every year at the GTG. One of the prizes was 4 tickets to a UMD Womens Hockey game , so you can come with and get some pointers.

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Ron, how about I hold on to the flasher and you can just use it every year at the GTG.

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I don’t think so

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One of the prizes was 4 tickets to a UMD Womens Hockey game , so you can come with and get some pointers.

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I have skated with some of the UM women’s team, great hands and decent speed
Now give me back my flasher, I need to check the depth in my aquarium.