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The jig is up on Lake Wissota

12th annual ice fishing contest set to take place Feb. 8

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January 20, 2025

CHIPPEWA FALLS – After having to cancel many of last year’s Jig’s Up Bluegold Ice Fishing Contest ice festivities due to Mother Nature, organizers are excited to get back on track in 2025.

The 12th annual contest will take place from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8, on Lake Wissota, a 6,000-plus-acre lake just east of Chippewa Falls.

“Even if you’ve never ice fished before, you can win big at our tournament,” Sheryl Poirier, one of the event coordinators, said. “The prize format is set up so anyone can win good prizes, even if they finish way down on the leaderboard.”

For example, according to the contest’s website (jigsup.org), this year’s first-place prize is a trophy and a Jig’s Up Rod, while 500th place will receive a Mathew Vertix RT Edge Bow valued at $1,000.

With the format, prizes are awarded by weight to the top 20 fish and every 10th place thereafter to 480th place, and then individually again from 481st through 500th.

“If we did a contest and said we are going to give prizes for the top 50 fish by weight, then we’re opening ourselves up to somebody cheating – bringing in a big fish so they win,” Poirier said. “We have to really monitor that and enforce the rules. We based the format on what Battle on Bago (Lake Winnebago) does. We want everybody to have a chance to win big, no matter how big their fish is.”

Poirier said the first-place prize is probably valued at a couple hundred dollars.

“If someone brings in a big fish, you can win first place, but you’re getting a rod and a trophy,” she said. “If you look down on the list of prizes, 250th place is a $1,000 check. For 140th place, the prize is a FLOE Cargo Max XRT 8-57 Trailer valued at about $2,600. All the prizes have either been donated, discounted or are a part of a sponsorship.”

After all the fish are weighed and the contest concludes, Poirier said the information is put into an Excel spreadsheet.

“With this format, participants have no idea where they get placed,” she said. “You can be one ounce off and miss out on a place/prize.”

Because the 2024 event was canceled for lack of ice, going back to 2023, the 250th-place winner, Matt Jones, won $1,000 with a .714-pound walleye.

“You can’t cheat to win,” Poirier said. “You can cheat to get to first place – we experienced some of that in the past – but we just spread the prizes all around. In the top 20, there are some smaller prizes. There are 86 prizes in all available for the placings.”

In all, Poirier said the 1,500 anglers the event typically attracts will have a chance to win more than $80,000 in cash and prizes.

Participants even have a chance to win a two-year lease on a new Ford F-150, she said.

“If you buy a fish ticket for $25 and weigh in a fish, you’re in the drawing for the truck,” Poirier said. “Whether you win one of these places or not, you are in the drawing for the truck. If you bought a ticket and didn’t catch a fish, you can still turn that ticket stub in for a drawing we call ‘The One That Got Away.’ You could win an ice auger.”

Poirier said there are also raffle prizes.

“The top prize is a new Polaris Sportsman 4-wheeler,” she said. “Raffle tickets are five for $20.”

Because Lake Wissota is a man-made lake, created in 1917, Poirier said it’s been stocked with fish over the years.

“We get a lot of crappie, northern and walleye,” she said. “It’s a well-stocked lake. We’ve asked the DNR about whether our contest is having an impact on the health of the fish and lake, and they have told us all is good. They told us we’re not making a big impact in that regard. We have to get a fishing permit through the DNR, so they know how many fish have weighed in. Every year, we have to report it.”

The lake, Poirier said, was formed by the construction of the Wissota Hydroelectric Dam on the Chippewa River.

“For our contest, the anglers can fish anywhere on Lake Wissota, and they drill their own holes,” she said.

A full list of rules and sponsors is available at jigsup.org.

Kids can have fun, too

Though the vast majority of the anglers are adults trying to win a prize, catch some fish and have some fun, Poirier said that doesn’t mean youngsters can’t join in the fun, too.

“Starting at 11 a.m., we have something called the Scheels Kids Club,” she said. “Scheels brings experts out, and they usually have some free s’mores or maybe some products for the kids. They have fishing poles, they drill holes and they help the kids fish if they’ve never fished before.”

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the day of the contest, the Scheels Kids Club will take place. Equipment, snacks, products and expertise will be provided by Scheels’ representatives. Submitted Photo

Poirier said it’s great for families who don’t know how to ice fish or don’t have the proper equipment.

“The kids club usually goes until about 1 p.m.,” she said. “The kids usually never catch anything, but they always have fun because they’re in that busy area where all of us are. They have a big bonfire on the ice, and they give prizes away. Every kid gets a little gift bag before they leave. I love that that family component gets brought into the event.”

Mother Nature is the ultimate decider

With the weather conditions last year, Poirier said the Jig’s Up event was one of the many ice fishing cancellations around the state.

With colder weather approaching, she said she is hopeful this year’s event will go off without a hitch.

“We just knew last year if we were anywhere near the ice, people would try and go out there,” she said. “We have to err on the side of caution. Ultimately, Mother Nature will decide.”

Poirier said ice fishers typically don’t buy their tickets until the week of a competition.

“The good thing and bad thing about an ice fishing contest is they can buy tickets right up to the night before our event,” she said. “The competition is only (a few weeks away), and I think I’ve sold fewer than 20 tickets online. If I called all of our ticket outlet locations, they’ve probably only sold a handful, but the days before, we’ll sell hundreds. Last year, when we refunded tickets, it wasn’t very many at all because everybody was watching the ice and just didn’t buy tickets. This makes it easier if you have to cancel because there are fewer refunds.”

Though the fishing aspect of the contest was canceled last year, Poirier said they still held the raffle.

Coming to fruition

Andy Jepsen, Director of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC) Recreation and Sports Facilities, said the ice fishing contest was a pipedream he had many years ago.

“It’s an athletics and recreation fundraiser for UWEC, so it gives back to the students for leadership opportunities and potential facilities upgrades,” he said. “It’s neat to see the community come out and rally around that. It’s competitive, but people still have a good time. It’s a fun event for everyone around.”

Initially, Poirier said the contest was held on Lake Altoona, but they soon found out the lake was too small (840 acres).

“We knew it wouldn’t work for the future,” she said. “We then moved it to Lake Wissota the second year, where it’s been ever since.”

Poirier said the issue with moving the contest to the bigger lake was that the Lake Wissota Lions Club already had a tournament there.

“We knew that was going to be a problem where we were going to kind of dominate over their tournament, and we didn’t want to do that to them,” she said. “We met with them and asked if they wanted to partner together and enhance both events… Since then, it’s been a wonderful partnership.”

Combining the two separate events into one, Poirier said, has been a “win-win” for both organizations.

“They were able to make more money, which goes back into the community, and we were able to use their expertise and connections in the Chippewa Valley and make it more of a family event because they run the kids component of this tournament,” she said. “From year two on, it’s been (UWEC) athletics/recreation and The Lake Wissota Lions Club working together.”

Titanic connection

In popular culture, Lake Wissota is mentioned in James Cameron’s 1997 film “Titanic.”

One of the film’s main protagonists, Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), states that he and his father would go ice fishing on Lake Wissota.

Lake Wissota, however, Poirier said, was not created until five years after the Titanic sank.

“It’s fun to get a notice though,” she laughed. “Lake Wissota is a very popular and touristy lake. There is a state park on it as well.”

TBN
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