Tony is a Minnesota boy that loves to spend time fishing! Tony will be fishing in Frankies MN State Panfish Tournament next weekend. Tony is not just an avid fisherman, he is a volunteer and a great dad. Tony recently posted an update on our Facebook page FrankesLiveBaitandMarine. Here is his recent update.
After a hard fought MN Made Outdoors tournament weekend, my wheeler and gear are frozen solid, my freezer is stocked up with fish, I got to ice fish with my family, and our second Future Anglers of Minnesota clinic was a great success!
Kyle Rick and I put in some hard hours on the ice in efforts to fill a tournament bag and possibly qualify for the North American Ice Fishing Circuit (NAIFC) National Championship. Crappies proved to be a challenge once again, as the schools we could locate scattered as soon as we drilled a hole on top of them. Sunnies on the other hand were easy to find but the big bites were sparse. Friday gave us a good look at where good average fish would be but going into Saturday, we did not see a similar pattern. It may be due to the weather but I’m not at liberty to blame the weather for the choice we made one tournament day.
We knew crappies would be an early bite window and having a large school in a small area would make targeting them easiest when livescope is removed from the equation. But when we found a mixed bag of fish in one location, we decided to switch up the game plan for Sunday. While we did manage to fill a bag, it was a “goofy” bag with 8 sunfish and 7 crappies and unfortunately, we did not get the quality of crappies we needed.
With 5.5LB at weigh in we landed in 14th place and did not qualify for the national championship. 1 out of two goals accomplished isn’t bad, and would be considered an improvement from last event. We will keep pushing for our first MN MADE plaque this season, but fingers crossed we don’t have to keep grinding in subzero temps. Congrats to all the 5 teams that qualified as well as those that took home cash/prizes on Sunday.
Saturday was a perfect day to get kids on the ice and the fish cooperated perfectly. The shouts of excitement and kids explaining every detail about how they caught fish, are the reasons why we started FAM. I can’t wait for more of these amazing experiences. The support from everyone and the interest to participate from so many great people has been nothing short of amazing and I thank you all! #getemhooked
