The 27th Annual Ice Out Northern Pike Tournament on Zippel Bay took place on the weekend of April 27-28 this year at the famous Lake of the Woods. Anglers had planned well for the event and the success didn’t disappoint. There were 77 teams participating this year and what weekend it was!!
The tourney is made up of two person teams and is a two day tournament based on weight. This is a fun tournament for locals and visitors alike coming together to target big toothy.
The mantra of this year’s tournament was “great timing and lots of big pike”. According to Zippel Bay Resort owner Nick Painovich, “It was a really good year. The big females were done spawning and were in the bay eating and gaining strength back.” With that said, there were big fish in the Bay and a lot of nice fish caught.
1st Place Winners this year were Jeff Wohl & Glenn Johnson weighing in with a total of 57.11 lbs of fish. 2nd Place was taken by Ron and Paul Wickham with 38.14 lbs. 3rd Place came in with 38.07 lbs by Cody Johnson and Aaron Wakawitz.
Congratulations to the winners and all the participants. The total weight of all Northerns caught during the tournament was 956.03 lbs. Wow! That’s a lot of fish!!!
Pike season on Lake of the Woods never ends. As we are border water with Canada, our pike season is continuous or another way of saying it is it goes all year long. This gives anglers a fantastic opportunity in April and early May to take advantage of monster pike who are somewhere along in their spawning ritual. And in Lake of the Woods, there are a lot of big pike!
Pike anglers pull nice pike out of various bays on the lake all spring and Zippel Bay is definitely a go to spot. Sometimes mother nature can throw some cold curve balls in the spring month but that’s what makes this stretch of water so special. Zippel Bay is quite secluded from the main lake, making it easier to hide from cold winds, and anglers don’t require the larger boats like on the main lake.
Lake of the Woods has a year round season on pike and a length limit as well. Anglers are allowed to keep three per day. Fish between 30-40 inches must be released with anglers able to keep one fish over 40 inches. This slot limit is one of the many reasons Lake of the Woods is a trophy northern pike destination.
Pike don’t receive a ton of attention on Lake of the Woods as the walleyes garner most of the love. March tip up fishing and a little bit of spring fishing is when anglers target these green spotted predators most often. They are in good abundance, are usually willing to bite and are great to eat once you get the “Y” bone out.
According to the MN DNR, there is often a pattern of lakes in MN that have big walleyes and pike have something in common, a good population of tulibees. Lake of the Woods fits the bill in this regard. When both walleyes and pike get to be larger, tulibees become a staple part of their diet. They also cause fish that eat them to get big quickly.
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