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Monday, January 28, 2008
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Big winner says he'll be back BRAINERD JAYCEES $150,000 ICE FISHING EXTRAVAGANZA Outdoors editor The idea was spawned at a 30-year reunion. The fish was caught on a lure that had sat in Terry Schwichtenberg's tackle box for 20 years, he said, previously unused.
The result was a thrill of a lifetime - and what could turn out to be an annual event for the Waterville man.
Schwichtenberg landed a 5.34-pound walleye in the last hour of the 18th annual Brainerd Jaycees $150,000 Ice Fishing Extravaganza on Saturday afternoon at Gull Lake's Hole-in-the-Day Bay to win the event and a 2008 Ford 4x4 pickup.
"It's pretty exciting," Schwichtenberg said. "We had had a couple of strikes (in his group). I was changing my minnow and dropped the minnow down and the big boy hit."
Rob Kelash of Foley was second with a 4.46-pound walleye, good for a Susuki KingQuad 750 ATV. The top local finisher was Joe Bisek of Brainerd, who finished ninth with a 2.12-pound walleye and won a Showdown digital fish finder. The lucky 100th-place finisher was Trevor Birdsall of Princeton with a .60 rock bass - worth a Glastron GT 185 fish and ski boat.
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Terry Schwichtenberg of Morristown smiled and held his hands high after he won the Ford 4x4 truck with a 5.34 pound walleye at the Brainerd Jaycees $150,000 Ice Fishing Extravaganza Saturday.
» Purchase reprints of this photo.
Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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"I don't think it will work too well out there today," Birdsall said with a laugh as he looked out over the snow-covered ice.
Yes, it wasn't boating weather, but conditions were ideal for ice fishing Saturday. The deep freeze of the previous week made for a solid sheet of ice of 20-plus inches and the temperature was around 20 degrees at the start of the contest at noon Saturday. Then, about midway through the three-hour event, the sun broke out, shining on contestants for the remainder of the event.
Some more than others.
Schwichtenberg got the idea to fish in the event while talking fishing with a former classmate after a recent 30-year high school reunion.
"He called me and said we should go fishing and that there's a fishing contest in Brainerd," Schwichtenberg recalled.
Saturday, Schwichtenberg and his group, which included his wife and his former classmate and his wife, were fishing in about 65 feet of water, although he said he had just put on a new shiner minnow and was dropping it and the small Daredevil-like lure down when the fish hit, so he wasn't exactly sure how deep it was at the time. It was the only fish caught in the group.
"About three minutes," he said of how long it took to land the fish. "It was like a big log coming up. It hit when I dropped the jig back down and didn't really fight that much.
"I've fished pretty much all my life. I generally fish for panfish. This is probably the biggest fish I've ever caught."
As for his future Extravaganza plans, "Yes, I will," he said when asked if he'll be back to defend his title next year.
In all, 730 fish were weighed and the Jaycees estimated the event attracted more than 10,000 participants, although exact numbers are yet to be released. The 2009 event is scheduled Jan. 24.
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