By Steve Weisman
You know the bite is good, when the top team has a 16-bluegill limit weight of 10.04 pounds, and the 18th place team has 8.22 pounds! That’s exactly what happened when the North American Ice Fishing Circuit (NAIFC) came to West Okoboji’s Little Emerson/Emerson Bay on Sunday, January 16.
In addition to the 10.04 winning weight, the next six teams were all over 9.10 pounds.
The winning team of Ben Lutterman from Reading, MN, and Colby Kraninger from Milford, IA, took home $2200 for their efforts, while the team of Kevin Fassbind and Nick Smyers from Wisconsin took runner-up with a weight of 9.82 pounds and cashed the second place check of $1375. Third place and a check for $1100 went to the team of Ben Blegen and Nocole Hambrick from Minnesota with their 16-fish limit of 9.62 pounds.
The largest bluegill of the tournament was a beauty at .9 tenths of a pound caught by Ryan Bircher from Ft. Dodge, IA. According to NAIFC tournament director Mike Howe, top presentations included using light line and small tungsten jigs tipped with wax worms or plastics.
Reflecting on the results, Howe said, “Probably one of the nicest weather days we have had for fishing and the bite was on! Many thanks to Dennis and Jeff at Stan’s Bait & Tackle, the folks at The Hutt Bar & Grill and the volunteers from the Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club who came out on Sunday to support our event!”
A major factor in the success appeared to be the 11-inch snowfall that occurred the Friday before the tournament. Prior to the snowfall, the ice was so clear that anglers could see weed growth through the ice, which definitely spooked the fish. By Saturday morning after the snowfall, the bite had changed, and teams were able to consistently find nice sized bluegills in areas along the boat ramp and back in Little Emerson Bay.
As a tournament director, Howe shared this about the Emerson Bay tournament, “Locals often have the edge in fish location and bait selection, but need to adapt to how these fish change under tournament day conditions, like they did with the snowstorm. Put that puzzle together and local anglers can do quite well, especially on a fun, productive lake like Lake Okoboji. Emerson Bay is well known for numbers of quality bluegill and as we saw, weights were very close between all the teams entered! We will be back next year and I really hope to see more Iowa teams come out.”
In discussing the concept of fishing the NAIFC, Howe noted, ““While every NAIFC event sees some of the best ice anglers in the United States participating, all of the qualifiers are very welcoming events. The camaraderie before any event runs very high; we are ALL passionate ice anglers! Come tournament day ,however, we want to WIN!”
The winning team: (L to R) Colby Kraninger, tournament director Mike Howe, and Ben Lutterman.
Ryan Bircher with the big fish of the tournament.
Most of the teams were located out from the Emerson Bay boat ramp.
