An Outdoorsman's Journal

WIFA State High School Ice Fishing Championship

Hello friends,

   If ever there was a week in my career that I had more to write than space to write it, it is this week. I have to be extremely vague to tell this story so please bear with me.
   The Wisconsin Interscholastic Fishing Association, WIFA, is about 100 of Wisconsin's high schools that make up teams of 12 students with each fisherperson allowed to use 3 lines, per state law. Throughout the winter tournaments are held where total inches per team at an event determines the winner.
   Here are some examples, at least for the state championship that I was a part of with the Mayville ice fishing team which is in its first season, and is coached by tech ed teacher Jesse Wasmund.
   Five northern pike may be entered and the total inches of this group is added. Five walleye, smallmouth or largemouth bass. Ten crappie, ten bluegill and ten perch. All fish must be at least six inches.
   Coaches are not allowed to touch a line or help bring in a fish. Fish must be photographed on a bump board with the kid that catches the fish. The photos are sent to WIFA personnel and that is how scores are kept.
Waters/ice for fishing this year’s tournament were the Wisconsin River and adjoining flowages from Wausau to Stevens Point.
   There was a huge and mandatory get together held at DC Everest High School in Schofield on Friday night where the rules were explained, an excellent meal was served and it was amazing to watch the pride in each individual team.
   Other rules included, no team could hit the ice before 6:30 on Saturday morning and no fishing before 7 with fishing ending at 2:30 and awards given at Mosinee starting at about 4. Also, the only water where any type of utv, atv or snowmobile was allowed was the Eau Pleine Flowage.

   Saturday, February 21st
   High 29, low 15

   I am blessed to be with The Mayville team and staying with this group of very fun kids and adults. Yesterday every team pre-fished and drove up in a major snow/ wind event. Today we would have 9 kids which would hurt us versus having 12 as that would be 9 less lines in the water.
   Parents/mentors were Tyler Thiede whose daughter Carsyn I have helped mentor many times for deer and turkey. Jesse Wasmund the coach and a fun guy, Brian Loos our cook and Jeff Lindgren and Travis Puls, two very intense fishermen who know exactly what they are doing.
   Small walleye and an occasional crappie or perch with a couple of small northern were the order of the day for us, no big catch but for a rookie team that was 3 kids short, they were having a lot of fun and trying very hard to add to the inches stock pile.
   Owen Steger is a senior at Mayville and his good buddy Kevin Keller is a junior. Both of these guys played basketball last night for the Mayville Cardinals and left Mayville at 3 am to join the ice fishing team. I might add that Owen has had one heck of a senior year as he was a big part of the Cardinals football team that went 14 and 0, won the state championship and Owen was all state on both the offensive and defensive line. Another cool part about these guys is that they’re hardcore waterfowlers.
   At about 1:00 this afternoon Owen had a flag/tip up meaning potential fish. This teams world went from doing pretty good for a rookies that were 9 lines short to holy moly we rock when Owen iced a 39.5 inch northern pike that would win him big northern pike for the 2026 WIFA state championship. An honor that only 1 kid out of 920 would enjoy.
   Mayville ended up with 232 inches. A very proud and skilled team from Winneconne won the day with 454 inches and I left the awards ceremony with a feeling that WIFA and its founders have created one of the coolest organizations on earth.

   Check out WIFA!

   Sunset