A Recap of "Slabfest III"...

[hanson]

Here's photos from the Slabfest III Gathering.

These fish were all caught in the gathering area. I apologize for not knowing the screen names of a couple of the guys in the photos. When you meet that many folks in one day, its hard to remember first names, let alone usernames online.

Within about a half hour of making swiss cheese in the ice, Dtro led the charge with this beauty crappie. This was Dtro's very first trip to Upper Red ever and his very first crappie from Upper Red. He stayed with me in my permanent shack for the weekend and I will say he had quite the trip!

But since Darren was a rookie to Red, he made a classic rookie mistake and that was leaving fish in the hole after he caught that one. He was back at my truck getting another minnow (another rookie mistake!) while I peaked at his flasher and saw 3 crappies suspended off the bottom. Not wanting to let an opportunity slide by, I grabbed my rod and dropped into his hole. Bam! Crappie! I unhooked that one and dropped again. Bam! Crappie number 2 for me! By this time I'm yelling at him to get over here and catch these fish! He runs back over in a mad rush and nailed another one on a Rattling Varmit Spoon & minnow head. He lost his bait on that fish so I offered up my rod which was rigged with a Berkley Power Minnow. Bam! Bam! 2 more crappies on the ice for Dtro! We combined for 6 crappies in under 5 minutes out of that one hole.

While Dtro was putting the hammer down on those fish, I was running a circle of holes around him with his Nils auger. Once the holes were in the ice, I told the other guys in the area to crowd in and see if we couldn't get more fish out of that school. There was some reluctance at first but I said it was totally fine to crowd us. Those fish were so aggressive it wouldn't have mattered.

Here are a couple more guys who got in on the action.

I remember this guy saying something along the lines of "Oh my God, that is the biggest crappie I have EVER caught!" when the fish popped out of the hole. Even got it without electronics! Way to go and Congrats on the nice fish! Wipe that smile off your face!

All of the crappies were caught within a very short time period, we then sat around the rest of the day trying to find them again. The grand total from the Slabfest area was 10 crappies. Walleyes were very, very uncooperative for us in this area.

IceHawk and his buddy went off in a different direction to find crappies and they didn't hit their motherload until dark. By that point, relocating to their spot wasn't in the cards for us so they got to enjoy an unbelievable evening of fishing with 24 crappies coming through the hole for them. I have never seen 2 guys cut as many holes in the ice as they did. You guys earned those fish!!

And then we caught this lost fish. I thought crappies had spots!

That is seriously the 1st Sheepshead I have ever seen pulled through the ice on URL. Pretty cool if you ask me although heartbreaking as it pops out of the hole! Iceman... you guys make it all the way to Iowa after you left?

I sure hope everyone who attended had a good time. The fishing sure could have been better. Normally the walleyes are a nuisance but that sure hasn't been the case the last couple times I've been on URL this year. I think those who were fishing with us saw the importance of augering and moving to find the fish.

[hanson]

Here's a few photos from IceHawk's group.

IceHawk called Borch and told him they just pounded a nice little school of crappies. I thought I'd head on over and take a couple pictures for them.

Here's IceHawk and his buddy Eric with 4 of the first 5 they caught.

After the photo, I was chatting with IceHawk and his buddy Eric caught this one right away while we were talking!

Found out later that as I was backing my truck up to leave, he popped another one and that kicked off a rally that put 24 crappies total on the ice for those guys! Its fun when you can C&R those things when you approach your limit, thats having a GREAT DAY!

[hanson]

These photos are from Friday when we were scouting for some fish. Friday was stinkin' rough fishing, it was rough!

Lots of folks have heard about the URL "Triangle". I have safely avoided the nasty triangle for many, many years. Well, it got me on Friday.

Started off the day by snapping the throttle linkage on my auger. Not really a big deal as we had plenty of augers to cut holes.

We made a quick move after that happened and I find out I have a flat right rear tire on my truck. Unbelievable! 8 miles out on URL and I have to change a flat on the ice. Grrr...

For those of you who drive Chevy or GMC, check that keyed lock in your bumper to get at the spare tire release. Mine was frozen in there solid. Some De-Icer, full can of WD-40, and some very careful pulling with my ignition key and she finally popped out. Praise the Lord that went smoothly and I didn't snap the key. I was a bit nervous for awhile there.

But that was all the "Triangle" had in store on Friday other than a very, very slow day of fishing.

I caught this one walleye all day. Guess if you are only going to catch one fish, might as well make it a nice one!

Night was approaching so I decided if its going to be slow, we might as well be comfy! I set the Otter Lodge up and Darren hooked into this fish before I even had a line in the water. This guy has some kind of luck I tell you! Beauty of a pike!

I think Darren and I combined for 4 or 5 fish tops on Friday. Like I said... rough day! I couldn't believe how much our luck changed from Friday to Saturday though in the same area. Crazy how that lake works!

[Shoogs32]

Thanks for posting the pics Hanson, and thanks for a great day of fishing. I am the guy in the 3rd picture down in your post. We had to leave slab fest early to set our sleeper up on the south end. We should have stayed because we only managed one more crappie that whole night with no keeper walleyes. Can you do me a favor and email that pic of me to greg @ kbconcrete dot com. I hope I can make it up to URL one more time this year and land a couple more.

[hanson]

Parting shot...

(Photo taken by Dtro)

[Shoogs32]

Woops, you just posted more pics, I am the one with the camo jacket on your first posts of pics.

[hanson]

 Originally Posted By: Shoogs32

Woops, you just posted more pics, I am the one with the camo jacket on your first posts of pics.

Gotcha! I'll send you the photos!

We really didn't do much more after you guys left. An eye or two, that was probably about it.

IceHawk was probably a 1/2 mile from where we were at when they found their fish.

[cookie129]

Man that looks like it was a fun day. Wish I could of made the slabfest. Fishing with a crew is so much fun. Theres always a great story to tell and some great laughs. Wow catching a sheephead? Must of woke him up banging a jig off his head.

[Lisa Almquist]

Thanks Hanson for putting on such a fun event. My only regret at this point is not fishing Sunday too!

[Shack]

Great post Hanson.

You guys make this look very fun, even for having such a slow bite.

I will not even say a thing about the spare tire issue . If I remember, you where part of that thread. Maybe not. Good to hear you guys got her down and it did not hinder the trip.

[rockman]

Looks like it was a great time for all.Man,I hate having to work on Saturdays. Next year I will have to put in for a vacation day, and join you folks.Nice pics, by the way.

[huntingislife]

Looks like you guys had a great time. We had to cancel at the last minute. We will be up next year again for sure.

[DTro]

Hey Shack, your post was "mentioned" a few times as we were bangin and tuggin at that plug

[DTro]

BTW, Hanson "offered" up his rod about as much as I "offered" up my hole He just had a hard time saying no as he was drilling the ring of fire around the fish

[Team Otter]

And there I was, NOT, screwing around with those goofy walleyes in shallow water...

[Jim Almquist]

What a fun weekend with a great bunch of friends. Many thanks go out to Hanson and Borch for putting on Slabfest. Team Otter your dad is just a hoot to fish next to with him telling his shark fishing stories " 200 yards of line just like that " Borch you make a mean apple pie Icehawk I do owe you and Eric a big apology but I have to blame it on the Triangle. Next time you get to wake me up Got a chance to meet and shoot the breeze with Kelly-P- Boy what a fun story teller. The weather was just awesome the whole weekend just wished the crappies would have been just a little more aggressive but thats fishing. This is the sunset on Saturday.

[iceman16]

Hanson i got back to the cities at about 1 in the morning and figured it would be safer to drive another almost 6 hours after some sleep so i rested up and headed down in the early morning. wish i could have stayed but had to go down and pay my last respects to my best fishing buddy ( my grandpa). had a blast my buddies that were with me stayed up there and fished out at rogers and they both want to make it a annual trip so i cant wait for next year. and on the trip i caught my first two slabs and one is gonna make a great wall decoration. thanks again had a blast. tell ya what i was alittle broken hearted when i saw that fish come up the hole and it wasn't a slab but it did put up a nice fight at the end.

iceman

[MuleShack]

Looks like the fish that were caught had some decent size to them. Atleast some of the hard work payed off for you guys. I was great that the weather cooperated, it makes for better pictures...

Glad everyone had fun, and i wish i could have made it up this weekend, but making the trip alone with the gas $ was not in the cards. This weekend i'm heading up with another FM'r to share the cost to see if we can't pick up some of your guys' scraps (so to speak).

I'm looking forward to hitting this event next year.

[Borch]

Well here's a few more pics of Slabfest Slabs, (the day after).

Here's my lovely wife Wanda with a few mid day slabs.

Now me with a couple of URL Slabs.

Finally here's Blake, (Steeplechaser's son). He's one tough fisherman as it was cold, windy and he toughed it out on the ice in the open all day long the weekend prior to Slabfest.

Persistence pays off.

[Shack]

Great pics Borch, great pics.

[wanger29]

Way COOL Pic.!!!

Just stole it, gonna make poster.

[Team Otter]

Well done Borch.

[Team Otter]

I saw you taking that photo and based on the effort you put forth, I knew it was going to turn out great! Thanks for sharing.

My dad and mom are going to Florida again the end of March; here we go again.