Battle On Bago 2021
This is a Sponsored post in collaboration with Visit Oshkosh
A little about Battle On Bago
Back in 2012 when I first started dating my now fiancé he introduced me to Battle on Bago. Now if you’ve never heard of Battle On Bago of BOB for short it was an event created back in 2007 by members of the Oshkosh Rotary Club. They hoped to raise funds for the community to help get kids outdoors and involved with local conservation. Since 2012 when I was introduced, BOB has grown exponentially. Currently they give out over $275,000 in prizes which include trucks and boats (can you imagine winning one of those?)
Some Rules and Regulations
BOB is held on the Winnebago system which include Lake Winnebago, Lake Butte des Morts, Lake Winneconne and Lake Poygan. Throughout the years there has been changes made regarding which fish are registrable in attempts to make sure anglers are doing their best to help conserve the population. As of BOB 2021 fish registrable are;
Walleye -minimum length 14-18 & 22 or longer
Panfish- perch, bluegill, crappies (minimum length 8”)
Whitebass- minimum length 8”
The 2021 tournament starts February 19th at 6:00am and runs through Saturday the 20th at 2:00pm. Scales are open Friday from 8am-8pm and from Saturday 8am-2pm ( you must be in line by 2pm at Menominee Park in Oshkosh). Although in my experience I always try to get in early to beat the rush.
Now lets get to the nitty gritty- Why BOB is my favorite Ice Fishing Tournament
So like I stated before, I was introduced to BOB back in 2012 but didn’t fish my first BOB until 2013. Back then, the tournament was quite a bit smaller but it's always been extremely organized and well run. My favorite part is cheating is dang near impossible! Why you ask? Well I think the tournament organizers realized with such great prizes there are always going to be people that try to cheat. They came up with the rules that prizes will be distributed as followed 1-10 like normal but after that every 5th place gets a prize. Example 15th, 20th, 25th, etc. Most of the the larger prizes like boats and trucks are way down the list where you really can’t cheat to fall on them. Over the years fishing the tournament, I’ve been fortunate enough to always scrape up a fish to register, and I’ve even been lucky enough to place.
Battle on Bago 2021- Friday morning Trevor had to work till 9am so as soon as he got home we packed up the gear and headed for the lakes. We had the hardest time deciding between Lake Poygan and Lake Winnebago but in the end we decided Poygan was where we’d hopefully fill our tickets. One of the major keys we’ve learned when fishing the Winnebago system is you MUST BE MOBILE. We started jumping spots around the lake and it wasn’t until close to 2pm that we started actively marking fish. Trevor pulled a walleye and a short while later I pulled a walleye that was in the slot so we decided one more small move and we were going to set up for the evening. Friday evening ended up being one of our best evenings on Poygan thus far this season. We were able to get our limits of walleye that evening ranging from 14-17.5 inches. Since we did so well the previous evening we decided we’d give Poygan another try with a friend of ours. It was a tougher bite but thankfully we were able to fill our tickets. Registration was a breeze this year, with two different check in stations both conveniently located with very little traffic at either spot. As always I was throughly impressed with how efficient and organized the tournament is run. I’m always sad when this tournament comes to an end but I always know its something I get to look forward to next season! Here are our results from the tournament.
300th place walleye (1.817)-Trevor won a Lacrosse Boot gift card
906th place walleye (1.387) Krysten
1104th place walleye (1.294) Trevor
For more information on Battle on Bago visit www.battleonbago.org
and if you are in the area visit www.visitoshkosh.com for information on all things related to Oshkosh Wisconsin!
