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Saturday, January 26, 2008
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They don't
have ice like this back home in Indiana
Outdoors editor This year, they weren't messing around.
In 2007, a group of four men from the Fort Wayne, Ind., area made the 12-hour-plus drive to Brainerd for the Brainerd Jaycees $150,000 Ice Fishing Extravaganza.
They drove in on Friday night of the Extravaganza last year, fished the tournament Saturday morning, then turned around and headed back to Indiana on Sunday morning.
They didn't catch a fish last year. Might not catch one this year. But things still were much different this time around.
First, the group swelled from four to eight members. Second, they got in on Tuesday night instead of Friday night. And they fished - and stayed on the lake - for two solid days, renting a pair of ice houses complete with bunks on Gull Lake, near Quarterdeck Resort.
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Anglers marched onto the frozen surface of Gull Lake Saturday morning next to rows of American flags.
» Purchase reprints of this photo.
Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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"We wish we had more time last year," said Chad Downing, who shared a fish house during the week with the three others who made the trip last year - Shane Mills, Clay Finnegan and Bruce Van Houten. The four Extravaganza "rookies" - Kevin Geise, Josh Traxler, Jon Pettigrew and Kurt Downing - fished in another house, about 25 yards away.
"We came in Friday night last year, fished in the tournament, stayed overnight and then went back," Chad Downing recalled. "That's a long time on the road."
They planned on hitting the road again Sunday morning. But after stepping on the ice Saturday morning, that drive was the furthest thing from their minds.
"It's way different than I thought it would be," first-timer Traxler said as he chipped out a hole Saturday morning. "I didn't think it would be this big."
The second-year guys had described it to the rookies, "but until you see it...it's pretty cool," Pettigrew said.
The four second-year guys first found out about the Extravaganza from a newspaper ad. Then, after last year's experience, they enticed the other four to join them this year. All work construction-related jobs in Indiana's northeastern corner. They all drove together in Finnegan's Chevy Suburban, towing a 6x12 trailer loaded with their gear.
They said that before they left there wasn't even ice on the area lakes back home. No worries about that here.
They found mostly about 20 inches of ice on Gull, and fished in 26 to 30 feet of water Wednesday and Thursday, they said. And while it was slow going in the house of Extravaganza veterans, the first-year guys had their moments - Kurt Downing caught a 3.4-pound walleye early Thursday morning. The others in the ice house wondered aloud if a similar catch Saturday would win it all.
"This is nice. If the fish were here it would be great," Geise said. "We came prepared. We brought portables ... (Our goal is) to have a good time but catch some fish. This is beautiful country up here. We just wish the fish were biting."
They hoped, of course, that their luck would change come Saturday. But they knew there were no guarantees. Never are at the Extravaganza.
"We've talked to a lot of people that have fished it for years and never caught anything," Finnegan said.
Although they knew little about the topography of Hole-in-the-Day Bay, they hoped to find holes in the 18- to 28-foot range Saturday.
"If we catch one fish between the eight of us," Geise said, "it will be worth the trip."
Traxler, seated at a fishing hole next to Geise in the rookie ice house, was more optimistic.
"We talked about who would drive the truck home," Traxler said, referring to the first-place prize - a Ford 4x4 pickup.
"I'm putting my money on Kurt," Pettigrew said as Kurt Downing glanced at the nice walleye in the bucket nearby.
"We caught a few yesterday (Wednesday). We had to throw that in their face," Geise said with a laugh of the second-year guys in the other ice house.
"It could be a long ride home."
But, all things considered, not nearly as long as last year.
BRIAN S. PETERSON may be reached at brian.peterson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5864.
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