By Steve Weisman
Last weekend my longtime fishing friends – John Amick and Bill Elling – and I fished the 32nd annual Pocahontas Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Tournament (PIGLIFT) on the Iowa Great Lakes. We found it to be pretty ironic that 32 (three or two-person) teams entered the tournament for the 32nd year! It is a walleye and panfish (perch, bluegill and crappie) tournament and you can fish either category or both, but you can only win a category once during the Saturday/Sunday tournament.
This year’s tournament rules went in a new direction for the walleye category. There has always been a PIGLIFT-imposed 14-inch minimum, and the teams have always had to adhere to the Iowa fishing regulations and even with three team members, only five walleyes can be weighed in.
In past years, there was always a weigh-in at the end of each day’s competition out in front of Templar Park. As a result, the walleye fishing could only take place on Big Spirit Lake. In the past, if a huge walleye was boated, there would be an immediate on the water weigh-in. Still, there was always concern about stress on the fish and a lot of care was taken to make sure the fish were in good shape before they were released.
This year, however, tournament director Howard Pattee felt it was time to go in a different and hopefully better direction. The 14-inch length minimum was still in place, but the tournament was changed into a catch-measure-photo-release (after measuring) tournament. All teams had to follow a certain protocol with two photos or a video of the fish on the “universal” PIGLIFT measuring stick. Teams could email up to 5 walleye photos at the end of the tournament each day. In that way, slot fish could also be included into the catch-measure-photo-release format. So, to determine the placing, documented lengths from each team were added together for a total length of up to five walleyes with each team ranked based on their cumulative length number.
According to Pattee, “Keeping our walleyes in good condition has always been a goal for the PIGLIFT teams. Major tournaments are going this way, and I just felt this would be a way that we could do an even better job of making sure the fish were safely released. Plus, I knew that teams would most likely be fishing Big Spirit and a lot of fish caught would be slot fish. In other years, those had to be released and could not count for team weight. Now, teams could measure and photo those slot fish and count them toward their total length.”
Reflecting on the tournament results, Pattee noted that there were 75 walleyes measured over the two days: 23 walleyes 14-17 inches measured, 44 slot fish measured and 8 walleyes over 22 inches measured. So, it was a win for both of the competing teams and the walleyes.
Walleye results
On Saturday, 34 walleyes were measured with the top two teams only a few inches apart. First place was 5 walleyes measuring a combined 107.5 inches (20, 24.5, 23, 20, 20) with the second place team at a combined 107 inches (20, 21.5, 24, 21.5, 20). The longest walleye taken on Saturday was 25.25 inches. On Sunday, 41 walleyes were measured with the first place team’s five walleyes measuring 100.25 inches (18.25, 20.25, 20.25, 20.75, 20.25). The longest walleye of the weekend was Sunday’s 25.5+ inches.
If there is one thing that the PIGLIFT teams are known for, it is pulling crankbaits. This year was no exception with most of the fish taken either out in the basin or in the transition between 18 feet and the main basin along the north and northwest sides of Big Spirit.
Panfish results
Slab crappies dominated the panfish results with the top four teams on Saturday and the top three on Sunday weighing 10 crappies. The top weight was 7 pounds, 15 ounces on Saturday and 8 pounds on Sunday.
Doing what we always do
For our three-person team, the Amick Connection, we fished PIGLIFT for the 30th consecutive year. Although we have competed in the walleye category before and actually did fairly well a couple of times, we are panfish fanatics. The panfish division is set up so that teams weigh their best combination of panfish. We often fish bluegills on West Okoboji, or we will fish perch on Big Spirit. Over the years, we have won the panfish division many times, but the last few years, the top panfish teams have gone to catching slab crappies, and a 9” bluegill or an 11” perch will not stack up against them. However, we love doing what we do, and we don’t feel like changing our strategy. So, we’re there to fish our panfish, have a great ribeye steak meal Saturday night at McKeen’s Grill and Pub and enjoy just being out on the lake for two days. With the COVID-19 concerns, we even changed our meal this year, picked everything up at the door and then grilled our steaks at Bill’s Big Spirit Lake cabin.
This year we fished perch on Big Spirit. In prefishing, we had found some nice 9-11” perch in the weeds in 7-8 feet of water. So, we were pretty sure they would be going. We weighed our 10 best perch on Saturday that ranged from 9 ½ to 10+ inch in length. Nice, quality perch but their combined weight of 4 pounds, six ounces only put us in eighth place 3 pounds, 9 ounces behind the leaders.
On Sunday, we had another 10 about the same size, but we decided not to even weigh in. It was more about the catching, admiring the fish, enjoying our surroundings. Oh, and we were able to clean enough perch so that we each could keep a nice bunch for a fish fry.
Measuring
The team of Travis Shimon and Austin Kakacek took top team honors at last weekend’s PIGLIFT tournament, while Shimon also captured the longest walleye.
Travis Shimon with the longest walleye caught at PIGLIFT, a 25.5+ incher, taken on Sunday.
Measuring
