By Steve Weisman
For the third consecutive year, the North American Ice Fishing Circuit (NAIFC) will be holding one of its National Qualifiers on West Okoboji’s Little Emerson/Big Emerson Bay on Sunday, January 17. Host bait shop will be Stan’s Bait and Tackle.
The NAIFC tournament series, is the only tournament series that provides local anglers an opportunity to advance to a National stage. The NAIFC qualifiers constitute multi-day, premier fishing events held in several states across the ice belt beginning in January and lasting into March, that feature two-person teams competing for cash payouts with the top 10 places receiving an invite to the 2021 NAIFC National Championship. For the Okoboji qualifier, each team will weigh their best 16 bluegills.
Each qualifying tournament has a team entry fee of $250 with openings for a maximum of 100 teams. Registration must take place on the NAIFC website.
Jack Baker, coordinator for the NAIFC, looks forward to the 2021 Lake Okoboji qualifier. “Our teams love to come to Okoboji. It is one of the most talked about events on the circuit.”
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the usual three-day event that includes a Friday night meet and greet, a Saturday ice fishing event for youngsters and the Saturday night rules meeting have all been changed to follow state restrictions and guidelines. Baker says, “Instead of those in-person activities, we will be doing things on Facebook Live on the NAIFC Facebook page and on the Stan’s Bait and Tackle Facebook page.”
On Friday night, people are invited to watch a Facebook Live seminar that begins at 7 p.m. The Saturday ice fishing educational event for youngsters has also been changed to a Facebook Live opportunity. Baker notes. “For the kids, we will do an educational ice fishing seminar on Saturday afternoon on Facebook Live at 2 p.m. We still want to get free ice fishing rods out to the kids, so all they have to do is make a comment on the Facebook Live seminar and then stop down to Stan’s to pick up their free rod.”
High School Event
On Saturday, a special high school qualifier for ages 12 through senior in high school will take place on Emerson Bay. To enter the tournament, contestants must be signed up by Friday, January 15 at 5 p.m. They can either go online at the NAIFC website to register or text Baker at (612) 308-4859. There is no entry fee for the High School event or the HS Championship. A membership to the SIF (Student Ice Fishing) provides VIP pricing to the student anglers.
Lineup and inspection will take place at the Emerson Bay boat ramp beginning at 7 a.m. The tournament will run from 8 a.m. to noon with weigh-in at 12:30 p.m. The top two teams will advance to the High School Championships in December of 2021.
Okoboji Qualifier
All teams must pick up their packet of information for the Sunday qualifier on Saturday afternoon between 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. at Stan’s Bait and Tackle. According to Travis Harman, “Teams can stop in at the shop or if they want us to bring the packet out to their vehicle, we will do that. The mandatory rules meeting will take place on Facebook Live at 7 p.m.”
The Sunday morning team lineup and inspection will take place at the Emerson Bay boat ramp. Harman says, “Tournament hours are 8 a.m., to 1 p.m. Weigh-in will take place at 1:30 p.m. Instead of transporting the fish to an indoor facility as we have in the past for the weigh-in, we will do the weigh-in right at the boat ramp.” For those interested in watching, the weigh-in can be viewed on Facebook Live on the NAIFC Facebook page.
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