What a weekend of pike fishing.  The mantra of this year’s tournament was “good numbers but not the huge females”.  According to Zippel Bay Resort owner Nick Painovich, “Everyone caught fish but the real big pike weren’t around.  Often times they head to the lake when it opens up.”  With that said, there were good fish in the Bay and a lot of nice fish caught.

Overall, there were 62 two-person teams that competed.  513 pike were weighed in with prizes totaling $3,100!

There was certainly many pike caught in the protected slot that had to be released and didn’t count.  We heard of some 39 inch pike that just missed the 40 inch mark needed to be a legal fish.

Lake of the Woods has a year round season on pike and a length limit as well.  Anglers are allowed to keep three pike per day.  Pike 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 pike destination.

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.

The Zippel Bay Pike Ice Out Tournament is a two day tournament.  This year’s winners were John Stanton from Williams, MN & Garrett Bitzer from Bagley,
MN.  They had a total of 31.15 lbs.  2nd place went to Greg Berg from Deerwood, MN & Chris Pieper from Baudette, MN with a total weight of 30.03 lbs.
3rd place was taken by Conner Uselman from Pillager, MN & Tristan Litke from Pillager, MN with a weight of 28.14 lbs.

This years tournament was very welcomed as last year’s 2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID.

If this looks like a lot of fun, it is!  Mark your calendars for the 2022 tournament.  Grab a friend or relative and make plans to fish.  Zippel Bay is like a small inland lake and a boat from 14 foot and up will work very nicely.

 

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