Net top prize by Oshkosh anglers
The North American Ice Fishing Circuit saved the best for last in crowning the winner of its Lake Winnebago qualifying tournament at its weigh-in on Sunday.
Literally.
Oshkosh anglers Cory Kordosky and John Danula provided the last bucket of perch and white bass to be weighed during the tournament’s awards ceremony at the Oshkosh Convention Center. And the duo’s total of 5.44 pounds for 11 fish topped the 23-team field, earning them $1,500 in prize money as well as tournamentchampionship trophies.
See more photos from the tournament
“Being how the weights were shaking out, I thought we had a chance,” said Danula, who earned his first win after participating in more than a dozen qualifying tournaments before.
“With the two white bass and a couple of those perch, we figured we had over four pounds — and we were trying to be conservative,” said Kordosky, fishing in his first NAIFC qualifier. “So seeing the highest one before was 4.3 pounds, it was getting pretty exciting.”
The duo also weighed the heaviest for the tournament, which ran from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. on Sunday in an area near the center of Lake Winnebago.
The 1.55-pound white bass the team hauled in — and they had another of similar size — was more than double the next heaviest fish.
That helped, seeing as the pair — who earned a spot in the NAIFC series championship in Rhinelander in December — only were able to register 11 of the 16-fish limit.
“Almost every fish came out of a different hole. We just drilled a new hole and they were there,” Kordosky said. “We didn’t have numbers, seven white bass and three perch. It was just big enough.”
Even the two large white bass weren’t necessarily what the duo was aiming for when they were landed.
“To be honest, it was kind of dumb luck out there,” Danula said. “We knew there were perch in the area where we were fishing and there just happened to be a couple of big white bass in there, too.
“In this lake, fish roam around and it was a right-place, right time kind of thing.”Read More ...
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