Starvation Ice Fishing Tournament Results

[gmanhunter]

Just wandering if anyone knows the results of the tournament? It's kinda funny no one has posted on hear about it.
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[1ManWolfpack]

Nobody posted about it because it was beyond terrible fishing. 500+ fisherman and only 26 fish total were caught. I believe they intended on paying top 30, and 30 fish weren't caught. I think the winning fish was 3.4 lbs. They need to find a better way to lay things out, 670 holes drilled in the area shown in the picture.
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[DeadI]

Do they require you to stay in that area? Or could you go anywere on the lake?
That many holes in one area, no wonder there was not many fish caught.
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[1ManWolfpack]

It is required to stay in that area. They pre drilled the holes and you choose a hole where you want to fish and could move around to any open hole.
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[MACMAN]

I posted about the tourney on a response to another starvation post. We fished the tourney and prefished Friday. Your right, the catching was brutal- everywhere we tried. Although the format was not what I was used to, I thought they pulled it off really well for an event that size. It was the most organized derby I've ever done, from traffic control, check in, instructions, warming huts, fish check in and prizes. I think they did a phenomenal job. I believe their intent was to level the playing field by eliminating the possibility of cheating along with making it a family friendly thing (I saw two people on crutches). If anyone thought it wouldn't be a zoo, or the catching would be fast then they didn't research it. There was over 800 in the previous derby they did at Chattfield in Colorado.
We had myself, my 9 year old son and a buddy entered. We all caught a fish. I actually had no idea they paid out that many places or that the prizes were as legit as they were. My fish was 2.18 pounds and finished at 7th place for $500. My buddy took 14th and won an aqua-vu and boot drier valued at $350. My son won a really nice boot drier and a hard rod case for around $200. Overall we won over $1,000 in gear and cash. We probably just got lucky, but I think prefishing helped us- even if it was terrible.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]A great example of someone setting up a tournament and not knowing ANYTHING about the lake, the fish or the conditions. I got a call early on the morning of the tournament from a BFTer who told me that they had changed the tournament from Rabbit Gulch to the area out off the state park. I couldn't believe it. It is absolutely the worst possible place they could pick for anglers to have any chance at success.

Starvation is definitely a "90/10" lake...with 90 percent of the fish being in only 10 percent of the lake. And that changes from year to year and week to week depending on lake level, food supplies and other factors. Knowledgeable ice anglers on Starvy NEVER fish the area of that tournament...because there are almost never any fish holding there. They might as well have been fishing in a chlorinated swimming pool.

I'm guessing they will have a tough time getting enough interest next year to even be able to have a tournament.
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[1ManWolfpack]

I was highly disappointed when I found out where it got moved to as well. MACMAN was right about the organization factor though. For as many people it went pretty smooth. Just wish they could have figured out the move a little sooner than the day before, so people could possibly rethink on attending and saving fuel and hotel $. Live and learn though. If they could spread the fishing area out, it might be worth trying again. I know it could be difficult because of dishonest people, but I totally believe it could be done.
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[dwayneb]

I was at the tournament along with a couple buddies. What I can say is it was a fair tournament from the standpoint the holes were predrilled. I have never fished Starvation and not done well. The only holes available after we checked in were in 97 feet of water and zero fish. Our three didn't ice a fish during the 4 hr tournament. We did manage some rainbows and walleye once it ended by simply moving 500yds from the tournament area.

I was speaking with a DWR officer after the tournament ended as he approached us to check snowmobile registration etc...he stated "we explained to tightlines outdoors this was the worst possible place to hold this tournament and hardly any fish would be caught." He the said the response from tightlines outdoors was, "that's ok we only need 30 fish." This does bother me in the sense these guys were content on very few fish being caught which means you really did need to get lucky.

All in all we had a great time. The weather was excellent and the fishing was great once the tournament ended. Congratulations to the prize winners!
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[fishnate]

"that's ok we only need 30 fish."

That's a pretty poor attitude from the organizers. They might only need 30 fish, but they need repeat and new customer base for the next tournament. Word of mouth could kill it next time. I couldn't stand fishing that close to anyone - with all the noise and commotion in addition to the poor location, no wonder there weren't many fish caught!
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[The_Red_Leaker]

Just wondering if I get any royalties for having my beautiful backside represented in that pic? []

The tourney is definitely a lottery and far from what I would call fishing. Really more like sitting in -12 degrees (no tents allowed) listening to bad commercials over a megaphone. I get you have to pump your sponsors but that lady's voice turned to nails on chalkboard pretty quickly.

Maybe, just sour grapes on my part because I take pride in not getting skunked on the hard deck - can't remember the last time that occurred. However, I still reek nearly a week after the "tournament" has ended, and I don't like it.......
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[DevinJ]

I heard they had to move the event from rabbit to the ramp area due to parking concerns, and access for paramedics or other emergency vehicles if needed.
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[TheWeekender]

The plan was to have it set up in rabbit gulch...from what ive been told they had to move it last min for the above mentioned reasons. At that point....what do you do?? Call it off?? Too many hours spent organizing it. I have talked to many people that absolutley loved the event. I was not able to go this year but would have loved to and will attend next year if possible
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[1ManWolfpack]

Must not have been too many hours planning or those issues would have been figured out well in advance.
Ah what the hell "we only need 30 fish anyway". I think when the DNR told them this is the absolute worst spot you could pick on the lake to catch fish and an oh well attitude was shown, it shows you where their true intere$ts were and it wasn't the anglers.
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[1ManWolfpack]

Your royalties are......... working with that entertainment walking next to you.
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[The_Red_Leaker]

Fair enough, you win on the royalties.

As for the intere$t$ of the outfit putting it on you nailed it. Let's just say they thanked their sponsors for donating all the prizes. If that is true, overhead was pretty low and there was $20,000 in entry fee money on the ice. Fill their pockets and move on. Who cares about anyone catching a fish. Just means not having to pass out all the prizes.

Lesson learned for me. If you're looking for a lottery go ahead and play. If you're looking to test your skills against other competent anglers, look elsewhere.
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[RonPaulFan]

Responding to this part:
[quote The_Red_Leaker]... Lesson learned for me. If you're looking for a lottery go ahead and play. If you're looking to test your skills against other competent anglers, look elsewhere.[/quote]

Thanks! Advice I needed to know!

Even being very interested, I took this long to finally read about this tournament because I was somewhat regretting missing it.

I've been thinking of tournament ice fishing a lot over the last few years. I missed the latest two opportunities for what could have been my first tournament. It looks like from the posts on both that my relaxing in comfort at Flaming Gorge was time much better spent because they got their tents and gear blown off Fish Lake and this one sure wasn't what I studied in preparation for being competitive and maybe winning a tournament.

Over the years, I've read many articles from professional ice fishing tournament competitors. They described what worked is a lot of dedication, scouting and pre-fishing and even then a lot of physical work running around drilling holes to find the fish and it was a challenge with great physical endurance they had giving them the greatest advantage in sharp contrast to luck the way it was set up in this tournament as described.

I took what I studied seriously and to prepare to have endurance to win, I resumed my bicycling with that also in mind though I would have anyway for health and physical fitness for living a good life.

I've ice fished running around drilling many holes and using advantages of my MarCum LX-9 to locate structure advantages or suspended fish. I bought the best of equipment. I even have digital depth indicators on my reels to run from hole to hole as the fish move and quickly get to their exact depth. I've been preparing for a real ice fishing tournament.

The leveling the playing field is my main notice of this one as not what I'm seeking because it's negating the advantages I've strived to gain and to me the whole point of competition I seek. As pointed out, this one has greater similarities to the lottery only with an ice fishing theme and family friendly. I shouldn't criticize that because people want that, so it should be available as it is.

But, I'm glad I didn't mistakenly enter this one and now realize that the tournament I seek to enter is a professional ice fishing tournament. I'm not saying I would do well against professionals with much greater skills and experience, at least for my first, but that's the type of tournament I seek.

People will be watching something called the Super Bowl this Sunday though it isn't really important like ice fishing

They're interested in watching the best of the best compete. The conditions of that game preclude it from being family friendly with players having their children with them on the field. If it were that, it likely wouldn't have it's huge devotion of fans. I don't think picnics in the park with touch football are televised.

I do work on having advantages for competition. I remember as a summer job when I was in high school as a bicycle mechanic, the shop owner saw me repairing a rear tire puncture on my bicycle during lunch. When he came back a while later, knowing I was the first choice of local professional racers for wheel building, seeing me still "repairing" the same one, he exclaimed that it shouldn't take that long! I said it didn't and I had practiced it over a hundred times in that short amount of time and getting much faster. He asked why would you practice for speed? I said: "That's racing, too!"

Yes, that sure sounds silly, but not long after that in a large event that attracted professional bicycle racers, I was in the front pack with them when I got a rear tire puncture. The professionals instantly knew by the rotating hissing sound that the race was over for me as I quickly pulled out and braked hard to stop before rolling on a fully deflated tire.

You should have seen the expressions on their faces just minutes later as I joined them again from a hard sprint! That was memorable! I exclaimed: "That's racing, too!"

Anyway, now I know there are "tournaments" and then there are tournaments and it's important to know the difference!
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[MACMAN]

A lottery?? That's what is at most other derbies I've fished have done in terms of the huge raffle at the end and them only paying three spots. These guys actually rewarded those that caught fish under the toughest conditions possible. This was still fishing- you had to adjust and adapt to put a hook into a fish. In my opinion, this format tested your skill and knowledge even more than a normal derby. It wasn't coincidence that three groups caught 10 of the 27 fish and they had many repeat winners from previous tournaments.

As far as them moving, they had to. Rabbit gulch could only fit about 20 cars on Friday. People would have been really pissed parking on the highway to walk in. It was a good call, but probably ultimately didn't matter much. On Friday, nobody we spoke to had caught a fish by 10:00 in rabbit where the grid would have been just out from the parking lot. They probably should have planned that out a little better, but again this is not really set up for a heavy harvest.

To think these guys are making a killing on this is crazy. There was at least 10 employees there and possibly 15. They are from Colorado and are out here setting up and taking down for 3-4 days. Their margin has to be razor thin after all the operation costs are deducted. If they did make a few bucks, good for them- in my opinion it's giving us options for what we love to do. As a business owner, I wouldn't touch a $20,000 job that required 15 people for 3 days out of state. I think this is as much advertisement for their business as a money maker.

Ron, I am curious of your research of professional tournaments. I haven't been able to find anything that pays out like this one did. First prize was a Polaris sportsman 4 wheeler. Jordanelle has a derby next weekend that first place wins a $250 gift card. This tournaments last place prize at 27th was valued higher than that.

I will fish with these guys again. It will probably be at blue mesa in Colorado if they do it there again. I've always wanted to fish there. I won't just go for the 4 hour tourney. I'll go a day or two early and fish anywhere I want and at any time I want. I bet I figure out a pattern that will give me a distinct advantage to leave with placing. If not- oh well. I'll have planned it and went, not just talked about doing it. That's why I fish in these things anyways.
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[RonPaulFan]

Good points on the fishing skills. Those winners were skilled and would have likely out fished me as I still have to develop better feel and sense of the bite. The winners earned their prizes by fishing skill. I didn't mean to imply otherwise and should have stated my point differently. I take back the lottery claim and it distracted from my main point.

My interest in a tournament would be one that includes the abilities to use the full spectrum of advantages in decision making of where to fish with all of the aspects of fishing and even the physical endurance aspect I described because that's fishing, too!
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[Fowl-Hook]

When 3 groups catch 1/3 of the fish caught it's all because of the Lottery of Hole Location. You can't actually think that Location didn't have a lot to do with the outcome. Location, Location, Location.
Congratulations to the Lottery Winners!
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[RonPaulFan]

On one ice fishing trip a few years ago doing my running around making lots of holes and initially just using the sonar part of my MarCum LX-9, I got a sonar reading like I've never seen before. It looked huge and was stationary yet with movement, so I lowered the video camera to see what was there.

It was a tree with fish swimming in and out of the branches and that's where I stopped to fish.

"It is required to stay in that area. They pre drilled the holes and you choose a hole where you want to fish and could move around to any open hole." -- 1ManWolfpack

With those rules, holes that are productive are likely to be continued to be fished while the others become available.

Essentially, it makes it significantly different than people would normally ice fish. Though it is ice fishing, the way the competition is designed makes it a different sport.

As I said before, the family aspect is certainly desired and popular and has it's place.

But, I seek the sort of ice fishing tournament that puts the full spectrum of ice fishing skills and work to the test.
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