BassMasters Tournament

This last Sunday the Bass Masters club of Cedar Rapids held their annual ice fishing tournament on Pleasant Creek lake. Although the event was not noted in the outdoor section on Friday of the Gazette it was evident that enough hard- water anglers had heard of the tournament as it seemed that the entire lake surface was covered with ice shelters, four wheelers, ice machines, and men on buckets. It was amazing to see that many anglers on the lake as there is usually only a handful of fisherman (two or three ice fishing huts) on the lake normally. However, today was an exception and the fishermen were probably more abundant than the fish population underneath the ice.

I was obligated with a volunteer job at church when the tournament was occurring and so I was unable to go fishing for any length of time. A side note though, a really hope to be able to participate in this ice fishing tournament next year; the only requirement is a donation of one dollar.

After the church duty I was at least able to head out to the lake and observe some of the goings on. I found out soon enough that there was prizes for catches of each species of fish and for the heaviest specimen obviously. I also took key note to where all the “hot spots” were on the lake, as they were somewhat easily identifiable with ten to fifteen ice huts in a small region of the lake. It’s easy to understand that these would be the hot spots, but I knew there was others that the best fisherman were on, and no one else knew about. I got some really great ideas as to where to try fishing next time I head out (I hope soon) and try Palo lake once again, because its so close to my house. Good luck and good fishing to all.