This is a great tournament! There was some debate about how many years’ Frankie has hosted this tournament, but the consensus was about 10 years. The Friday night kickoff meeting was well attended. You might recognize some of the anglers.
The format is a two day tournament where each team will fish for four hours on Chisago Lake from 8:00 AM until noon. Each team may keep 8 sunnies and 8 crappies. The Saturday morning BLASTOFF is something to see. There are four wheelers custom rigged for ice fishing. There are side by sides. There are mobile fish houses.
It was cold, dark and clear. The temp was -14. Some of the four wheelers would not start. There was mechanical scrambling to get the cold equipment going.
All contestants must be back to the starting line at noon. The fish are placed in buckets and transported to Frankies for weigh in.
As each team was weighed in, they were interviewed by Billy Hildebrandt of KFAN outdoor radio. See the live event at: https://www.facebook.com/frankies.marine.5/videos/465828811762905
The total weight of the 16 fish was tallied. The top 10 teams advanced to day 2. The winning weights ranged from 6.7 lbs to 7.8 lbs. There were not many large crappies. The prevailing comments were that there were lots of little ones but no big ones.
While the top ten advance to day two where the cash prizes are awarded the next dozen received prizes including:
Vexilar Sonar Phone
Vexilar Sonar
Vexilar Fish Scout
The final action for the day was to draw the lake for day 2. South Center Lake was drawn for the finals.
