When it comes to Mille Lacs Lake ice fishing fun, the Adamek family has it nailed.
On Saturday, members of this Jordan, Minn. clan deployed their 8.5 by 22-foot wheeled Custom Cottage fish house at the edge of the on-ice awards area out-front of Hunters Point Resort at 9 a.m., as part of the 28th Annual Perch Extravaganza.
They augered holes in three feet of ice, dropped lines, powered up their generator and enjoyed themselves, fishing in four feet of water. Six couples stayed warm, cozy and well supplied, pulling the full contest shift. “We had 19 people in there shaking dice with the windows open, listening to numbers,” said Corey Adamek, referring to the 91-minute, post-fishing tourney raffle ceremony – which really was the main event after the 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. perch contest. “It was a total blast.”
The Adamek team caught some big ones. Prizes, that is. Two of their many button numbers were called, netting them a pair of Aqua-Vu underwater fish cameras, capping one of the luckiest weekends they can collectively recall at Mille Lacs Lake. Several family members scored big on pull tabs at Long Siding (Friday night) and Bayview Bar and Grill (Saturday evening)
“Then we pulled it (the house) back across the lake and we’re back out there fishing again,” said Adamek, who was with his whole group Saturday evening at Bayview, sharing a meal. “We’ve been coming up here for 20 years and we love it!”
Perhaps the luckiest participant of all Saturday was Elk River resident Steve Bellrichard. His button number – 1597 – was drawn last, handing him a new Ice Castle Fish house from Milaca Unclaimed Freight. Guns, ice augers, GPS units, and countless other pricey prizes were given away. A more detailed description of prizes is at the Johnson Portside Bait and Liquor website.
For the record, the winning perch was just more than 1.65 pounds, landing the lucky angler a $500 cash prize. In all, 21 perch more than a pound made the leader board. We’ve requested a list of the fishing winners and some post-event information from organizer Steve Johnson, owner of Johnson’s Portside Bait and Liquor. We will post more details when we receive them.
Sales of the $10 tournament buttons may have eclipsed records this year. Different colored, leftover buttons from 2010 and 2009 were dragged out to meet demand. Those “yellow ones”, with number, were called, helping ensure the integrity of the raffle drawing. Several long-time veterans of the tourney claimed it was the biggest on-ice group they had witnessed in years.
Article courtesey of Mike Wehking, MakeItMilleLacs.com
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