Weeds Rule at Antioch NAIFC

Press Release from the NAIFC North American Ice Fishing
Championship

Neither Alan Epich or Mike Davis had fished Channel Lake in Antioch Illinois since the last Trap Attack Tournament held nearly three years ago. Despite that fact, this Illinois team from Mokena (about ninety miles away) only needed one good day of pre-fishing to locate the bluegills they needed to win.

Channel lake is what many of the top bluegill experts who fished this lake consider a classic "weed lake." The key to finding and catching sunfish in this lake is finding good stands of green weeds. Because visibility was restricted to about five or six feet, this put most bluegills; weeds and contestants up shallow fishing shoreline orientated flats. Many of the tournament contestants’ sight fished to learn as much as possible about the reactions of the fish they were trying to catch.

The winners, Alan Epich and Mike Davis had found fish in a few different locations before the tournament but the nicest fish they found were smack dab in the center of a community spot covered with permanent ice shanties. Alan joked about the number of holes and was dismayed at the amount of litter left on the ice from inconsiderate anglers. "There were cigarette butts, peanut shells, pop cans all over the ice and to be honest, my partner and I hate fishing community spots but we figured we better check just to make sure." This community spot located on the north end of the lake produced some big bluegills for Epic and Davis right before the tournament but they did not know how many anglers would fish this spot during the tournament and what the pressure would do to the fish.

Both anglers drilled several holes in the area so that they could just kick open holes the next morning during the tournament, as they feared several teams drilling several holes would put the fish down. The team dubbed "Team Mohawk" got in line early the next morning and raced to what they believed would be a very crowded location the morning of the tournament. To their surprise, there were only twelve other teams in the area and they had plenty of elbowroom to work. Both anglers believe in "fishing heavy." A term ice fishing legend Dave Genz came up with years ago to describe small ice fishing lures that drop fast, take the memory out of line and eliminate waiting to get to the strike zone. The copper #12 Fiskas these anglers used are constructed out of heavy tungsten specifically for this purpose. Like many of the field, Epich and Davis were tipping their jigs with Little Atom plastics, the Duppie in the green and white. For added scent, a single red maggot was added.

What this team soon found during the tournament was that the large sunfish left in this community hole were in the midst of extremely thick weeds. "The whole screen on the Vexilar was filled with choppy marks indicating the weeds which started about a foot and a half below the ice. The heavy Fiskas were snaked through the weeds until the anglers found small gaps in the weed growth where the anglers could read their jigs on the Vexilar displays. A shining example of the advantages razor sharp target separation like found on Vexilar’s FL-20 can help anglers catch more fish. Many other electronic units designed and marketed for ice fishing application boast crisp target separation as well but the Vexilar shined and gave these anglers a distinct advantage because Vexilar is notorious for picking up movement. Thus allowing anglers to pick out the movement of fish within dead spots in this case created by heavy weed growth. Epich and Davis are sponsored by Jason Mitchell Elite Series Rods, Little Atom and True Value Hardware. After winning the Midwest Open event earlier this winter in Brooklyn, Michigan which is a qualifying tournament for the NAIFC Championship, Joe Pikulski and Myron Gilbert almost pulled off two consecutive wins with a second place finish on Channel Lake. This Michigan team has amassed an amazing track record over the past few years, two consecutive Team of the Year Titles. With a first place and second place thus far, this team is poised for a unheard of, third consecutive Team of the Year title heading into the next tournament that takes place in northern Wisconsin, February 17th on Upper Turtle Lake. These Little Atom Pro Staffers are beginning to turn heads in the industry with their aggressive hard nose fishing style that is dominating organized ice tournaments. Both Pikulski and Gilbert just announced that they will be working with their newest sponsor, Jason Mitchell Elite Series Rods on cutting edge rod designs for targeting sunfish and crappie.

The next NAIFC Tournament will be held in northern Wisconsin’s Upper Turtle Lake on February 17th. St. Croix Rod heavy weight and past NAIFC Championship winner, Mike McNett anticipates a different kind of bite for both crappie and sunfish at this up coming tournament. "We are going from a weed lake to a deeper basin lake that has dirtier water and little weed growth," notes McNett. Both environments are perfectly capable of growing heavy panfish but the patterns and fish movements will be drastically different, changing the approaches and strategies for these traveling pros. For more information on how to register for this tournament, pitting your skills and knowledge against some of the best ice anglers on ice, go to www.naifc.org. Also note that observers are welcome and there will be seminars and special kids fishing clinics tied into this event. Many anglers who are not competitive remark that they thoroughly enjoy being observers which does not cost anything. Observers often remark that they learn an amazing amount about modern ice fishing in a very short period of time.