Mobridge Ice Tournament recap

I’ll start out by saying I’d have loved to attend the IDO get together at Leech Lake, sounds like a heck of a good time was had by all, even with a slow bite. Sometimes, Ma nature wins and you get to appreciate the social aspect of ice fishing more than ever.

The reason I didn’t go is because for the first time ever, we were drawn to enter the Mobridge, SD Ice fishing Tournament! In only it’s 15th year, it’s easily become top 5 in the nation for a must-do ice event. Not only does it give you access to nearly $200,000 worth of prizes, but you get to fish one of the best walleye factories in the entire country, Lake Oahe.

What was cool for me, is to see that IDO was so well represented! I saw many, many more IDO hats and hoodies than ever imagined, well done guys!

We did “ok” in the tourney, placing 61st out of 525 competing teams. With a complete 180 of weather conditions from Friday to Saturday, our prefishing basically did very little to help us, not to mention it was so cold that my partner’s ATV died almost 7 miles up river from the access on tourney day.

The fishing was fun regardless. Lake Oahe is a very diverse fishery and the quality is world-class, no matter what species you set the hook into. We caught awesome walleyes, crappies, catfish, pike, and white bass – all on the same spots and presentations. There are not many places in the US of A that can claim such gaudy varienty/quality as we experienced. If you ever get the chance to get there, you must do!

Presentations that were good included VMC Tingler and Rattle spoons, Rapala Rippn Raps, and our Otter sleds stood up to the miles and miles of a beating on rough ice, even in temps that pushed 20 below zero.

To those I ran into during the festivities, it was great to meet you. IDO sure has some fantastic followers! Here are some pics from the weekend.

A double on a VMC Tingler and Waxie jig deadsticked with a minnow

A view from my seat at the rules meeting:

Some of the prizes we won! Team 514 cleaned up

Andy

Looks super fun Andy… One of these days the stars will align (Probably when I win the Powerball and hire a full time nanny) and we’ll finally hit the ice together.

Will

You are welcome to come out anytime William!

Good seeing you Andy, Congrats on the prizes!

Gary Smith & I left Tues 1/05 heading to Mobridge for the tournament & a few days of fun fishing.
Arrived @ Pheasant Cove Lodge in Glenham around 4 pm after some having to contend with some
Slick roads. Had a couple drinks with Marv, the lodge owner & then went across the street to Hoggies for a bite to eat.

The ice in the Mobridge area was a long time coming this year & still some bad spots to watch out for.
After picking up some minnows in town on Wed am we headed for Indian Creek boat ramp, nobody
else out on the ice so we decided to fish the bay a bit before trying to cross the river to Timber Creek.
Ice was about 6” – 7” with several heaves to watch out for. Picked out a long point & started jigging.
Finally iced a 19” Walleye & Gary picked up a nice 10” Perch. Watched with our mouths open when
a 4 wheeler went across a heave on a point close to shore, sure enough he broke through but powered
his way back on the ice. About noon we looked around & found a route around the heave & could see
some tracks going across the river so we cautiously headed that way. The result was a 2 man limit of
Walleye, several HUGE White Bass, Crappie & several Smoothies. The Cats are really nice sized this year, up 12 lb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSkzoB6_H8o

Wed night “ALL YOU CAN EAT TACOS” @ Hoggies (they make a decent Margarita too!)

Thurs, on the ice before daylight. Bite was slow, didn’t really get going until after noon. Limit of
Walleye & another bunch of Smoothies ( these bruisers are a blast thru the ice) & White Bass.
Got off the ice around 4:30, headed into town for the vendor ice show. Back to the lodge & I
Was in bed by 8 pm, super tired.

Fri am, back on the ice early, turned out to be a morning bite. We were releasing all our fish today.
I landed a dandy 21” Walleye & we had several 17” – 18” that we turned back. We quit fishing @ 11 am, didn’t want to burn our spot out.

Was foggy with icy roads day & night Tues – Fri.

The Mobridge Chamber with the SD fish & game built a heated/air conditioned fish cleaning station @ Indian Creek.
They just finished it Wed afternoon & we were the first ones to use it, REALLY NICE, especially for the ice fishing guys.

Fri night was the rules meeting for the tournament & raffle drawings. Spent $80 on raffle tickets &
got back about the same amount in fishing gear that I don’t need They drew for 3 Ice Castles, several dozen augers & depth finders & tons of other nice prizes but nothing big for us.

Sat, tournament day, picked up our bucket & number @ the Coke plant & they started releasing
teams @ 9 am. Finally on our spot about 9:45, with the am bite yesterday I figured we’d pick up
some fish right away but NO. Cold front moved in overnight, 2 degrees & wind blowing. Tried fishing
out of the shack for about an hour but holes & line froze up so fast it just wasn’t working. I did catch a big Lake Herring about 18” & 2 nice Crappie but no Walleye.
Got our portables set up & ground it out.
Finally about 2 pm I tried a spot next to a submerged tree in about 51’ & pulled up a 17” fish. Turned out to be the only Walleye we caught. I was really happy we had a weigh fish so we wouldn’t have to drive down the Coke-a-Cola Road of Shame.
( if you don’t weigh fish, that’s where you turn in your number)

Sat night weigh in & more prize drawings. Last year about 1100 fish were weighed, this year 500, so guess the bite was off for everybody.
Even though we only had the one fish I think we still were in the top half out of 525 teams. 3 Four Wheelers, 2 side/side, more augers/depth finders given away but none for us.
Over $200,000 in prizes this year.

Caught 90% of our fish in 32’ – 51’. Jiggin spoon & minnow heads, dead sticks didn’t do anything.
The new Northern buckshot rattling tingle was our best spoon.

6 am Sun, back on the road home, -15 degrees, kind of glad the Diesel is gone.

Great time, Thanks Gary for going along. Hope to get back up in that area a couple more times this season.

Terry

Wow, great reports guys. So having never really fished the river through the ice, what areas do people look for? Do you go up in the creeks, fish around the mouths, or just points along the main channel? I may have to make a trip this year to experience it.

We did well Thursday, 42 fow seemed to be the sweet spot. 22″ was our best walleye, plenty of 16-18 inch fish. We used the new cleaning shack, that thing is really nice. Friday was a bit slower, but the tip up I had was getting hit so I knew a bobber plain red hook would be the ticket. Finished my limit pretty easy, but the others struggled. As the front went through I knew it was going to be tough. We drank way too much Friday night, shaking off the foggy head was tough! Went around with the auger and vex, didn’t mark a thing, figures. The bite was really light, every 1/2 hour I would mark a fish and he’d play around for a minute then leave. The cats were ready to play. You always know when they are on, had one wallowing under the ice about the same size as Andy’s big one, there’s no way I’m getting that one through, but was worth a laugh. One of the guy’s in our crew on a different team was 5-6 feet deeper fishing a medium rap got a 18 and 19 for the scale, I caught 3, just 2 for the scale, @ 16 1/2-17″. We ended up 170ish, keep moving back a few spots every year. Was nice to see the guys we’ve gotten to be good friends with over the years. There’s a couple of the locals who have kind of adopted us and make sure we have what ever we need. I wonder if we go there for the fishing or for the chance to get together with all of friends. The town rolls out the red carpet, every one is very friendly. I’ll include a picture of a wagon rut trail we get onto the lake on, picture doesn’t do the scenery justice. We had one wheeler pull shacks and sleds, where we fished was walking distance. Oh yeah nice to meet you Andy!

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