The inaugural Badlands Bass Bandits ICE series has come to a close with the 4th event held March 6th. Five teams came ready to compete and although temperatures were much higher vs the previous event, mother nature decided the wind needed to blow up to 20 mph to make things interesting for the competing anglers.
At launch, all teams set their heading for the warm water discharge as that area proved to be the hottest bite during the previous weekends event. The Fish Donkey notifications saying, “GOT ONE!” were not blowing up everyone’s phone like they have for numerous events prior, instead it was a slow trickle of entries during the mornings progression as teams were having a difficult time filling their limits with an awfully slow bite.
Although the bite was slow, the action on the Fish Donkey leader boards was hot with each catch changing the leaderboard dramatically. Team Bullinger came out with an early lead and as morning progressed Team Okke/Kuppler were giving them a run for their money overtaking the top position later in the day. Team Blomberg started lighting up the boards in the afternoon bringing in an 18.25-inch fish giving them the current big bass and moving them into position to overtake top spot with one more good catch. In the final minutes of the event team Bullinger registers a stout 18.5 incher that earns them the biggest bass award and catapults them into top position sweeping the field in dramatic fashion! Congratulations team Bullinger on the buzzer beater win!!
As members were loading boats and sharing how the day went we all spilled the beans and shared what worked on a very tough bite. Spinnerbaits, some on crankbaits, and slowly worked soft plastics like the ned rig contributed to this event’s catches.
Remember March 20th is this year’s ICE Bowl event, water levels are still low so the launch used will be the ramp on the SE side of Nelson. This is a free event for ANYONE who wants to attend, you can shore fish, fish from a canoe/kayak, or from boat. We hope to see you there!
