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Monday, January 28, 2008
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You have to see it and feel it to believe it
Outdoors Editor "Unless you see it ..."
Mike Winkler of Joliet, Mont., had been told of the enormity of the Brainerd Jaycees $150,000 Ice Fishing Extravaganza. But he still wasn't prepared for what he saw Saturday morning.
"I've never seen anything like this in my life. It's an incredible sight to see," Winkler said as he gazed at the massive crowd around him from his chair on the northeast corner of the tournament spread on Hole-in-the-Day Bay. "Unless you see it and feel it. The visual - to be here and feel it."
Winkler may have been an Extravaganza rookie, but he knew what he was talking about. Unless you see it ...
This was my second Extravaganza. I fished last year's event. But, I'm guessing, even if you've fished it 18 times, until you see it again ...
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Nick Anderson ran to the weigh-in tent at the Brainerd Jaycees $150,000 Ice Fishing Extravaganza Saturday with his fish. When people made the dash the onlookers cheered.
» Purchase reprints of this photo.
Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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It's like a carnival on ice. Start with the fact that the population on Hole-in-the-Day Bay on Saturday rivaled that of Brainerd. Then throw in 20,000 ice fishing holes - drilled the previous day by volunteers - and probably just as many coolers, filled with beverages hot and cold. And food. Everywhere.
Volunteers toted sleds stacked with coolers filled with brats, turkey legs and soda. If that wasn't enough, vendors lined center ice, offering cheese curds, mini donuts, corn dogs, gyros, French fries, Frito pies, burgers, fried Twinkies and other State Fair-like fare.
Products, too. Zorbaz, Snosuit, Walleyedan and Mr. Heater - among countless others - were housed in tents or ice-fishing houses there. Coon-skin caps were for sale, as was Native American-style jewelry.
Even a tent company set up camp. And, right around the corner, was a First Aid station, just in case you slipped - and had one too many fried Twinkies.
And Thirst Aid. It was one of the many banners and flags anglers flew from thousands of what resembled mini fishing camps.
Radios blared, most all tuned to FM-93.3, which provided fun music and live coverage of the event. Participants dressed warm and dressed up - one man came in a three-piece suit, over a layer of thermal underwear, of course.
Cheers erupted when a contestant made his or her dash to the weigh-in station, a see-through bag with their catch in tow. Or erupted just because ... this was a party.
"The spirit of the people here," Winkler said of what he'll take from the event. "It's not often you see 20,000 people together having fun. You can go anywhere to find a frozen lake. But the people here are a lot like the people in Montanta - friendly, outdoorsy."
Neither Winkler nor fellow Montanan Kenny Lloyd, fishing in a group with about a dozen locals, got even a nibble Saturday. Didn't matter.
"That's totally secondary," Winkler said.
But that didn't mean they didn't give it their best shot.
"Kenny's going down to the bitter end, too," Winkler said as most of the others in the group started packing it in with about 10 minutes left in the contest Saturday afternoon. "We won't quit until the canon fires (signaling the end of the contest).
Both hope to bring their families next year.
"We didn't come for the bite," Lloyd said just before the canon sounded. "We came to experience Minnesota."
And the Extravaganza. Because unless you see it ...
BRIAN S. PETERSON, outdoors editor, may be reached at brian.peterson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5864.
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