The 1st Annual Harbor View Resort Ice Tourney was considered a success by myself and all the anglers who participated this past weekend. With unseasonal temperatures upon us, West Okoboji and mother nature left us with enough ice to hold the tourney on Little Emerson Bay only. The ice in the bay was a good 10 inches in most spots, but be careful if you’re heading out. There was open water within sight. The following is a little information that may help others who plan a trip to Okoboji to get in on this outstanding blue gill bite. (Pictured is Howard the Duck, world famous ice angler!) 
West Okoboji has some of the clearest water you will ever find. In winter, with less weeds and less particles floating in the water, it becomes even clearer. Plan accordingly. Line selection will be critical for sight fishing blue gill. Think clear! 
Although there are less weeds in the winter than the rest of the season, West Okoboji’s clear water allows for green growth year-round, to some degree. As with most of the year, weeds will hold fish in the winter as well. If you can’t find a good patch of weeds, try an artificial weed like Reel Weeds to draw the gills in as they move throughout the bay. (Picture #2 is John Grovsner, local guide)
The tourney produced some interesting findings. I heard a number of different jigs that produced fish for different anglers. Smaller jigs like BFT Mini Merts, Genz Worms, and Fat Boys were a good choice. Most anglers tipped jigs with waxies or wigglers. I personally had great success with wax worms and had to work the jig fairly aggressively to draw gills in toward my bait. However, there were times that they seemed to want less action on the jig. This is where my MarCum underwater camera proved to be most helpful. I used the camera to gauge their reaction to my presentation. I they were showing interest in my swimming approach, I continued the more aggressive action. If they seemed spooked by the action, I kept the bait still and let them move in to check it out. This was a successful strategy that would have been impossible without the camera. (Pictured third is Cole Hale. Cole nabbed 5 gills in his first ever ice tourney!) 
My strategy proved fairly successful. I weighed a limit of ten and finished with nearly four and a half pounds. I can’t complain with this being my first fishing tourney of any kind. The winner was our good buddy, Eric Goodale of Iowa Outdoors. Eric’s total weight was nearly six pounds in a tourney were several anglers did not weigh a single fish. Congratulations Eric! Eric and many other anglers will be featured in the next edition of Iowa Sportsman magazine. The magazine will also include more information on the Harbor View Ice Tourney.
I want to take a moment to thank Ryan Hale of Harbor View Resort for holding this tourney. It was a lot of work and Ryan did most of it himself. For me, I have as much fun meeting fellow anglers at the tourney meetings as I do fishing. One more special thanks goes out to fellow IDAers CamperJack and Todd Consbruck for putting up with me for the entire weekend. I had a great time! (Picture #4 is Eric Goodale, winner of the first annual Harbor View Ice Tourney.)
Here are a few more pics…
Krista W. with 2 nice gills!
Mike W.
Chad P.
The three big winners!
Nice gills are right!!!!
In January! 
I drove down to Cedar Rapids and back today, and was amazed to see the fishing ponds with open water from MAson City to CR!
I planned on being there but my wife had a nasty flu and my fuel pump went out of my pickup
I plan on being there next year. And I’, going there a week from Fri. for the weekend. Wade, did you stay with Camperjack?
Ed
Those gills are HUGE
It looks like everybody had a great time. Glad to see the tourney was a success for Harbor View 
Great report Wade!! Congrats on taking a limit to the scales at your first tourney!
I sure wish I could have made it work to go, Maybe next year. 
Nice gills.. Great tourney.. I’ll be there next year.
that sounds like a blast! 10″ of ice? I guess I just didn’t think there could be that much down there! Guess I was wrong! Theres no where near that much ice where we were today.
nice fish!
Great photos and tourney recap Wade!! I am going to try to make it next year as well!!
Yep. It’s funny because I had no idea that he was Jack McClure when we scheduled the rooms. We started talking and I realize who he is – a living local legend! I met some incredible people this weekend. It’s a must for next year.
Derek, Luke, Ben, Mike, You guys gotta be there next year. Mark it down! We need to get Koonce to go too. Sight fishing these gills is a great time!
A big thanks to all the anglers who fished this event.For the first year the feedback was AWESOME.We will expand the field next year to 60-75 teams I believe,which I think we should be able to fill.
The bite was very good to poor in only a matter of feet.Sight fishing these gills is no easy task.Wade fished hard on Sat. and only iced 1 gill all day.But on tounrey day he put around 30 fish on the ice,a great job Wade.You should be very proud on how you did.
Thanks for the report Wade,and a shout out to those that fished it.
Ryan Hale
I will just plan on it !!!
Great report Wade !!
And sounds like you did a fantastic job of putting on the tourney Ryan !! You Rock !!!
Nice gills guys and weather to match!
Ryan or Wade, please let me know when this will be next year. When I heard about it this year my weekend was unchangeable.
Anyone know the fish count of the 6 lbs winner?
Brian, it was a 10 fish limit.
Ed
I had a blast, can’t wait until next year.
Chad
You are so correct how would you like to live by NO ICE/MASON CITY
Good Lord willing & the creek don’t rise I’ll be back next year. Had a blast,hope you make it Ed. Jack
Yep it was a time. Undoubtably the worst 4 days fishing I have had in years. Drilled gazillions of holes Thursday and Friday hundreds of them Saturday.
I am the guy that brought Howard the Duck out, showed him the Cortland ice flies at Shuck’s, told him I was going to buy a 5 inch auger (he bought the last one), and put up with all the cell fone calling. Duck claimed to catch hundred or more every day, I caught 10 gills total. I went with Little Atom plastic on bare hook Sunday. Technique best described as pushing the hook and plastic down hole with line. I’ll be back soon. It was a blast just looking down the hole if it was a fishie hole. One of BrianK’s bait fish came up in my hole during tourny then milled around till the 40 inch pike scared it into weeds.
Looks like a new area for me to frequent….
I also had a great time during the weekend. It was my first tourney and first time sight fishing gills. As usual the stay at Harbor View was great and the tourney was better. I’m looking forward to next year and weighing in my first tourney limit of gills
Great Report Wade.
Sounds like a fantastic weekend.