Fishing Derby

[hedgesd]

[size 2]I spend the weekend trying out the derby. When we got to Cave lake we couldn't park near the lake because they over sold the derby. We parked down off the hill and took a shuttle up to the top of the hill. I left half of my stuff in the truck because I didn't want to pack it in and out of the shuttle. We got signed in and here comes a lady with a tagged fish. In 15 minutes the first on was pulled out and then here comes another after we left the table. [/size]

[size 2]They went over the rules with us and they changed it. You could only catch 5 fish and your done. That wasn't what we were told when we signed up. They changed the rules so nobody would win. The odds sucked to begin with but only 5 fish really bites. What kind of derby is this? [/size]

[size 2]We had to wait to get somebody to drill holes for us since I left the auger in the truck. While we were waiting we checked out to see if anybody else was catching fish. Nobody was reeling anything in or even swinging so it didn't look promising. [/size]

[size 2]It took me about 3 minutes to catch my 5 fish and I was done. My brother was out in about 10 minutes. We stuck around and kept on catching fish until 1 when we finally got sick of people giving us dirty looks. We didn't get one tagged fish all day, which I would kept for the scrap book. Every fish was a dink, smallest fish was 4" and biggest maybe 9". This lake even has a size limit of 9". What a waste of space on the proclamation. The 3 of us probable caught more fish then everybody on the entire lake.[/size]

[size 2]My over all impression of this derby is [red]DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY.[black] I wouldn't go back even t fish this oversize kids pond. For starters, the derby was rigged so nobody would or even could win the 10,000 fish this year. It was won 2 times in the last 3 years so if somebody did win the insurance company would drop the derby. They tagged the fish the day before and put them in a bucket almost all day before they released them. Basically, the only fish that lived (3) were caught. [/black][/red][/size][size 2][red][black]Besides the 5 fish B.S. the derby was capped at 250 people but they sold almost double that. It was more of a party on ice then a derby. [/black][/red][/size]

[size 2][red][black]The raffle was independant of the derby but it is funny how everyboby who couldn't enter the derby won all the prizes. To really make this interesting the raffle had a power auger, 2 hotel packages and a ice chest. This is the worst raffle I've ever seen or heard of. No fishing poles, no jigs, no stupid little prizes from sponsors. [/black][/red][/size]

[size 2]For $30 I didn't expect much. They atleast could of gave us lunch or free coffee and a heater next to the checking tables. [/size]

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[southernman]

well sorry to hear that the event was mis-managed, and the rumors were flying . . who exactly runs this event? It seems that they dont realize how big a deal it is and alot of people in more than a few states travel to this event - they need to step up to the plate!

sm
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[hedgesd]

This derby wasn't mis-managed, it was purposely set-up so nobody would catch the 10,000 fish. I think the local elks/lions club puts on the derby. 460 people were allow to enter which was suppose to be 250. It was funny to hear the officials talking about how screwed they would be if the insurance company showed up and made a head count.

Last year the rules were simple, just fish and if you catch a tagged fish great if not oh well. The fish tagging was the day before the derby and the fish they did catch was put in a bucket until all 25 fish were caught. Basically the fish were dead when they released them all over the lake. If the delayed release didn't kill the fish then catching them in water deeper than 20 ft would of finished the job.

We talked to a lot of people who came as far as Michigan. Nobody I talked to mentioned anything about only 5 fish and your done.

[red][size 3]FYI:[/size][/red] All this info is from the other guy, name not included, who fished with us and what I heard from officials at the derby. All his info was from being involved in the derby directly. He caught 6 of the fish to be tagged and was directly involved with planning and preperation of the derby.

I don't think very many people will complain about the 5 fish rules since I didn't see many people with 5 fish. In fact I didn't see very many people who had even a single fish. Basically, it didn't seem like they had a clue how to ice fish.
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