Exiting Stage Wright with the Rings
Ice
Team crowns victors at the first ever North American Ice Fishing
Championships
Alexandria, Minnesota
– The rumor was truth and its contents held throughout the day.
The early word from observers was that a twosome got into ‘em at
the opening bell. And the fish, as reported, were chunkier than
anything sloshing around in anyone else’s bucket.
The
Wrights, not Orville and Wilbur but brothers Jeff and Ben from
Brooklyn, Michigan, hooked a bunch of hulky panfish that no other
contestants would match, although that reality wasn’t evident
until mid afternoon.
The morning entered like a
lion. A firm and icy wind gathered momentum beneath principally
gloomy skies. By late morning, in fact, that gust was keeping most
anglers crouched in their Fish Traps all the while piercing holes
through the unswerving few who continued to jig in the open.
Meanwhile, back at the
road show and StrikeMaster tent, Ice Team personal watched watches
with the absorbedness of students on the last day of school. Tick,
tick, tick, tick… 1:30 p.m. seemed like Trap Attacks away.
Around 1:00 p.m., bodies
began shifting around the ice in earnest, some panic-stricken,
sweating and searching for that 15th fish or making efforts to
upgrade. Others, more collected, coolly packed their belongings
and traipsed or motored for shore.
Time had expired. This
epic event, the first of its kind, drew to a close. Anglers formed
a procession across the front of the mobile weigh-in station. Paul
Fabian – Ice Team’s stoic and salty Tournament Director – counted
fish, poured ‘em in the official weigh basket, and called off team
numbers as duets approached the stage.
While the scale’s jumbled
and digitized numbers settled on a score, master of ceremonies
Dave Genz interviewed the pairing in question. A little small talk
– “what did you use and how was the bite?” sort of banter – and a
certified weight was tabulated.
15 fish bags averaged in
the mid to upper two’s, that is pounds. The beefiest bags – ones
eliciting “oohs” and “ahs” from spectators – pushed into the
three-pound-and-something- ounces class, although there weren’t
too many of those.
A “3.51” kept hold of the
lead and probable ownership of the colossal $10,000 check and
Superbowl-like rings. That was, though, until those dang-nab-it
Wright brothers approached with five bluegills, five crappies, and
five perch that cumulatively weighed practically a pound better
than the current best, pushing the scale to 4.34 pounds.
Oohs morphed into to
hollers and ahs to cheers. The Wrights had eclipsed the field.
Video cameras rolled, camera flashes discharged and microphones
were raised into position. Interviews with the media lasted for
over an hour. Ice fishing fame was the Wright’s to keep.
Ice Team offers it’s most
sincere congratulations to Jeff and Ben Wright, as well as all the
other participants who qualified to fish the North American Ice
Fishing Championship by placing in the top ten in Trap Attacks
last winter.
Learn more about the North
American Ice Fishing Championships, Trap Attacks, and cutting-edge
ice fishing tactics on the Ice Team website (
www.iceteam.com ) or by
calling 1-800-ICE-FISH.
