By Steve Weisman

Well, the North American Ice Fishing Circuit’s qualifier on West Okoboji’s Emerson Bay is in the books, and the bluegills did not disappoint. A total of 20 teams weighed 16-bluegill limits with the team of Aaron Berg and Matt Thayer from Wisconsin weighing in the top weight of 10.24 pounds. They also won the Big Fish Award with a .91 tenths of a pound.

Jack Baker weighs in fish

They were followed by the team of Ben Lutterman from Minnesota and Colby Kraninger from Iowa with 10.13 pounds. Another six teams weighed between 9.10 and 9.86 pounds. Just goes to show how uniform the size of the larger bluegills are right now.

Following a midweek blizzard, It was really a good weekend for the tournament with decent weather for Saturday’s prefishing and Sunday’s tournament. The weekend kicked off with a fishing seminar on Friday evening, a kids’ seminar on Saturday afternoon, the rules meeting on Saturday evening and then the weigh-in on Sunday afternoon from the Emerson Bay boat ramp area.

Now get this. I watched all four of these events, and I never left the house. Yup, thanks to Stan’s Bait and Tackle and the NAIFC Facebook pages, all of these events were live streamed, and I watched them on my computer from the comfort of my chair. Certainly, some of the hype and excitement of being there in person was lost, but I have to admit it was pretty cool being able to do this.

The cool part is that you can go at your leisure to these Facebook pages and watch those four events. Check out the photo of NAIFC tournament director Jack Baker weighing the fish on Sunday. I snapped the photo as it happened at the weigh-in.

Key points (if you want to check them out)

• Friday evening’s seminar was filmed at Stan’s Bait Shop. Nate Winters half of the 2020 NAIFC Team of the Year discussed how he and his teammate Jason Kamrath dissect a lake to find the fish they think will win a NAIFC tournament. Some great tips, and you can still watch it on Stan’s Facebook page.
• Jack Baker hosted the Saturday afternoon “NAIFC Kids Ice Camp” supported by Ice Team. Even though it was via Facebook, the message for kids and parents was perfect. Jack shared fundamental hints that were good reminders for the parents, too. The big point was about presentation, and on Okoboji’s clear waters, also known as the cadence. Jack calls it “Song of the Day,” which goes back to his daughter Grete’s way of catching Okoboji bluegills. She told her dad that she had several songs in her head, and would match her cadence to the rhythm of the song. If it worked and she caught fish, she stuck with that cadence. If not, it was on to the next one until the right cadence began catching bluegills.
• The Saturday evening rules meeting gives spectators an inside look at the rules that must be followed and are enforced at every NAIFC qualifier.
• The weigh-in! It was awesome to still be able to see the drama unfold. With the quality fish, it was really a close battle.

Top weight – 10.24 pounds

The second largest bluegill – a .82-pound bluegill.

Nate Winters shares how he and his teammate Jason Kamrath dissect a new lake.