Yeah.
What?
Good thing.
Alright.
Okay.
Alright.
Yeah.
Just jump down there.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
That guy...
Yeah.
Well, we can train these out, yes.
We're trading them out.
Two, twenty dollars more than you can get out of here.
Yeah.
That's a good one.
Yeah.
So, is this just for the...
What do you call it?
It's just this.
Yeah.
It's just this.
Yeah.
Twenty bucks full.
Twenty bucks.
Cool.
They have an extra twenty, huh?
What?
You want to see all the
My mom should be 6.
Are you going to buy her a threw jar right off?
Ricky.
Oh, what's that, nope.
Green stubs, the bomb scrub goes in there.
And you keep building something up.
No, I'll do it over there.
I'm going to give them a Payment.
For35 years.
I won't go Drivers as usual.
Five
And they're going to buy people.
🎻
Thank You color
select
uh- twenty
tech
you're much better
🎻
probably cause
we can't
get to youth
we can see
Polly
bled
growth
at least
I gotta do.
Show right in her.
You're gonna tear hearts the sand.
There he is.
He is well.
There he is getting full.
So crazy here, really breaking drumsticks.
The band must have been off the hook last night.
Because that's when the family is up in Alaska.
So I go through these, a lot of these are fishy contests and stuff.
And I've got a fake 20 pound wall.
And I've got the whole building stuff so people pick the picture for his own nation.
I mean if you hold it right, it looks like you just pulled it out of the water.
Okay.
Well, we'll be here.
So if someone does it, then we'll try and grab that.
Alright, yep.
And you guys are.
Okay.
I guess give me sort of the background on the decisions that led up to this.
Obviously you've held this on this weekend for a long time, right?
Yeah, we have, we don't necessarily ever have good ice historically.
We've canceled events in early February, late January, this weekend, twice now.
So leading up to the event, we had great ice conditions.
We were out there last weekend.
It was amazing.
I met with some local people and it was the best conditions we ever saw.
We watched that continually deteriorate.
So Wednesday night, we all met at Pains Point.
We got together with the local fishing clubs and their road plow chairmans and we discussed ice conditions throughout the system.
And after that meeting, board directors for Battle on Bagga went to another facility to discuss this and, if need be, vote.
And we did that and, you know, we collectively as a group decided it just wasn't a good idea to bring all the people from out of town to send them out there in those conditions.
We weren't comfortable with it.
When you talk about coming in from out of town, like how big of a draw is this?
Oh boy, we get a few provinces from Canada, west coast, east coast, Florida.
Yeah.
So it's not just the Fox Valley.
It's majority upper Midwest people, ice fishing people.
But yeah, we get we get 25, 28 states and multiple provinces.
And so is it a liability issue or is it just more of like safety thinking like you would hate to be responsible or think someone thought it was safe to go out there, especially if they're not local?
Yeah, no, it's not a liability issue.
We cover that and we watch that, but it's a, I think it's a values issue.
I mean, just in good faith, we can't, we can't send them out there on conditions that they're uncomfortable with.
Plenty of people are comfortable.
The local people are comfortable.
They know the lake.
They know every inch of it.
But people that don't, it's kind of a, it's kind of an odd lake.
We've got a lot of reefs.
It's shallow.
The ice conditions go fast there.
So you may have two feet and a hundred yards away.
You have none of ice.
So it's just, it's not, not great for people who aren't from here.
So you talked about the unique conditions of the water here.
There's also got rivers coming through and then you add in the weather we've had.
Is it wind with those or what are all the combinations that led to that ice going, deteriorating so quickly?
Yeah, no, it wasn't wind.
When the ice is that thick, we don't get a lot of wind issues.
But yeah, we have, we take the Fox River watershed and we take the Wolf River watershed.
They both join in on the Upper River Lake.
So we've got snow melt from up north and we don't have run off here.
We didn't have much snow this year, but that's coming on the Fox River.
It's deteriorating that ice from the bottom up.
We're essentially a giant river system, river in river out.
So yeah, we're deteriorating from the top and the bottom at once.
So yeah, it was kind of a, kind of the perfect storm to deteriorate that bad in four days.
So, but you said this isn't the first time you've had to cancel.
Is it just, is it just, you never know?
We don't know.
We've canceled events in late January, early February, like I said.
And we were certain that we were ready to go and it was going to be great.
We had the, we had the wastage set up.
Tables were ready.
Scales were calibrated and we disassembled all that yesterday.
So from a, I guess a disappointment standpoint, is it frustrating for you to like, you've gone
to all this work because you want to host a great event and give people the opportunity to come here?
Well, yeah.
I mean, we're all anglers.
We're competitive anglers.
We're recreational anglers.
That's what we like to do.
That's why we have these events.
So yeah, it's disappointing, but we pivot and we make the best of it.
And the back end of this seems like everyone's going to still have a good time, right?
Oh, yeah.
The tent was packed last night.
The community always supports us.
So that was fantastic.
They came down and filled up the tent and we were happy to see that.
We weren't sure what to expect.
The last time we canceled, we had about three and a half weeks to prepare and we had two days this time.
Okay.
So we didn't know what to expect yesterday and it's been great.
How has the bite been out here this year?
It's been good.
Yeah, the perch bite's been great out there.
Winnebago always takes care of itself and sometimes white bass, sometimes it's perch, walleyes, but yes, it's been a good season out there.
So when we go along here and we see people ice fishing out there, it's likely that they know where it is safe.
Oh, absolutely.
That's the local people.
Sturgeon's experience season is still open.
They're still out there.
The fishing club just still maintaining the ATV bridges for them.
So, yeah, you're going to see people out there no matter what.
Talk to me about walleye.
What is it about walleye through the ice?
How is that different for you or for other fishermen versus open water?
Well, walleye through the ice is changing like everything with the new 3D, 3D sonar imaging and whether it be live scope or active target, whatever they're using out there.
It's been a game changer in the winter just like the summer, but Winnebago is just a great walleye fishery.
It takes care of itself.
We have amazing upriver spawning grounds.
I think everybody around here would agree that that's the key to it.
That's the key to success on this system.
And it's as good of a fishery as I've ever seen.
I've been here my whole life.
And it seems as good as when I was a kid.
I mean, what is it?
Is it still a thrill when you get, you know, like, oh, that's walleye, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
When you're ice fishing, you've got a rod in your hand.
You're not trolling and just grabbing rods.
And so, yeah, you set the hook on a walleye.
And it's a great feeling.
I guess I know we're going to talk a little bit more what this does in the community.
But for you, is this like a now a long haul to wait until open water?
Because that is kind of what happens this time of year, right?
There's that stretch or?
It is.
Yeah.
I mean, I fish competitively.
So we start south in the United States.
So we'll be at it in about three weeks.
But yeah, it's going to be five or eight weeks before we get on the water up here.
But the rivers will open up first, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
And so people will be out there as soon as they can get a vote in the river.
You'll see the boats going up and down.
Yeah.
All right.
Anything else you want to add about the events of this weekend?
No, not really.
I mean, we're going to keep going here today.
We're going to pull our raffles at between four and six o'clock tonight and thank the community for supporting us.
And we're going to prepare for next year.
All right.
Could you just say and spell your name and give your title with the organization?
Jim Erdman.
J-I-M-E-R-D-M-A-N.
Board of Directors.
Spell on Beggo.
All right.
That's all we need.
Awesome.
Thank you.
But yeah, I know we.
Yeah, we've pushed a lot of tournaments against each other.
I mean, maybe to kick his butt.
He would say it the other way.
That'd be good.
Yeah.
I'm ready when you guys are.
Okay.
Hold on.
We can take it if you need to.
No.
Let's do sure.
He's bringing me buckets.
I'll turn that off so it doesn't do that again.
It'll ring ten times otherwise.
All right.
You need to talk to me.
Okay.
Walk me through some of the logistics here.
How many years?
How big?
What do we got here?
So, Beggo has been, this is our 19th year as a tournament.
It started out very small and it's grown toward it is today, which is the world's largest ice fishing tournament.
So, we're on the right track.
How did it come to be?
I mean, was it just people needed something to do when they weren't waiting for the open water?
It actually started in rotary and they were trying to come up with a fundraiser.
And Glenn had came up with the idea of an ice fishing tournament because they're all with doorsmen.
We like to fish.
We like to hunt.
We like to do things in, you know, conservation.
And the first, the first event had about 300 people.
And it was very small and simple and it just blossomed from there and it grew exponentially.
So, how many entrants would you have had or did you have lined up?
So, on a good year, there's good ice.
There's a lot of variables.
Mother Nature plays a huge factor in this.
But on a good year, I think our largest fish entry was over 11,000.
And as far as fish tickets sold in the area of 12 to 13,000 per year.
Well, that's a lot.
That's a lot.
It's a lot of anglers and anglers come from all over the country.
This year we have people coming from Manitoba.
Even though there's not fishing, they're coming to enjoy the festivities.
So, what is it about ice fishing?
I mean, ice fishing, I know there's multiple species.
We're talking about walleye specifically.
But, I mean, what is it about that that's so different and unique of a way to get out there and experience that?
Yeah.
So, I think the soft water fishermen and the ice fishermen are a different breed.
There's a lot of them do both, but somebody has their favorite, right?
So, there's guys that enjoy soft water fishing better.
There's guys that enjoy ice fishing.
I think it's more of a challenge.
There's a lot more hole hopping, jumping around, finding schools, doing that sort of thing.
It's more of a challenge.
I think that appeals to a lot of anglers.
And, I mean, what is it?
I mean, it's Wisconsin winter.
It's like you've got to find something to do.
You have to find something to do.
And this is what we have.
It's a huge, you know, our fishery here on the Lake Winnebago river system, which would include, obviously,
Butamour, Winnekani, Poigen, and all the way up through Fremont and north of that, even on the Wolf River.
It's such a good fishery, and the walleye population has just been growing, and it's so much fun to fish on that.
I think it just draws the people in.
So, what's it like when you have to make that call that?
It's a tough one.
You sit down as a board of directors together, and we speak with the different local fishing clubs that run the landings, the bridges.
Obviously, we've got to watch Mother Nature.
She had a great winter going for us all year.
And the last minute, she decided it was going to be very warm for the last eight days coming up to her in the ice.
It just turned for the worst.
And we believe we made the right call for the safety of all the anglers.
I mean, it's kind of crazy.
A month ago, it was 40 below.
Yes.
And it was awesome, honestly.
You could have been driving anywhere.
And right up until the last day, it was good enough.
I used to take UTVs and ATVs, and now it just got a little sketchy.
So, what will you still be happening here?
Have you got the tents?
The party's still going on?
Yes.
So, our Friday night event, which we had last night, it turned out great.
We had a huge attendance.
We have a band on Friday nights come in, the party.
And people come from all over just to enjoy the festivities and not just the fishing.
So, this is more like a Friday night.
It was more of like a community night.
And then on Saturday, we do the tickets, the raffle tickets.
And then as we draw all those, the tents full again, because everybody wants to win something.
We give away some pretty good prizes.
Yeah.
It's on that prize board and like the truck.
And that's pretty good.
Yeah.
So, so we give away a truck on the fishing raffle side and we give away a truck on the general raffle side.
UTVs, ATVs, a lot of cash prizes.
So, it's pretty exciting for people.
So, how much money is raised and where's that go?
So, each year is a little bit different as far as, I mean, stapling a number together.
But we raise, let's use this number, over the course of, I'll use 18 years because we haven't done this yet.
We're at about $2.7 million that we've given back into kids and conservation.
And that includes high school fishing teams, learning how to fish.
It might be empowered dream hunts.
If, if a city needs a handicap boat ramp or a dock, we're more than happy to assist with that local fire departments.
We've assisted those in funding some of their projects that have to do with ice fishing and ice rescues.
As we do have enough ice rescues, whether it's during our event or a different event, but we have to keep everybody safe.
So, when you have a situation where the ice goes out in middle of February, do people talk about like, oh, it's climate change or things are different or they just go, it's just that it's what it is.
It's just the way that it is.
We're standing outside right now and it's 24, 25 degrees, my eyes are watering, my hands are frozen.
Um, in next weekend, I'm guessing people are going to be driving on the lake again with UTVs and ATVs and not worry about it.
So, it's just, this year was a bad luck week.
And in the course of 19 years, we have had to cancel the fishing portion three times.
So, I don't blame it on climate change.
I blame it on bad luck.
It's just, I mean, it's weather, right?
Yeah.
And it's Wisconsin.
Stick her out.
It'll change, right?
Yeah.
I mean, it's not the first time that people have seen a warm spell in February and they've got snow through May.
Yeah.
We had such cold weather and once it warmed up, it stayed warm and now we're going to have a cold spell again.
So, are most people that have been invested that were excited for this?
I mean, are some of them still fishing and they'll come back in?
There are.
Yes.
There are some that and they ask the question, well, can we still fish?
Absolutely you can fish.
Um, we're just not sending anglers all because of the safety and we don't want to have that on our plate.
So, um, yes, there's still several that have gone out fishing and enjoyed themselves there and then they come to the tent and enjoy the festivities afterwards.
Yes.
You can still get the best of both worlds.
Yeah.
It's probably not as crowded out there.
No.
All right.
Um, I mean, is it still fun or is like overall does this have a tinge of disappointment for you?
Well, obviously we love to see the fish come in, right?
We love to see the anglers come in and talk about what they caught and say, because when we do our fish, it's not the biggest fish ones, the biggest prize.
Our prizes are scattered throughout our prize list, as you saw on the board, that you want to get 1,000th place or you want to get 2,000th place or 1,500th place because those are better prizes than first place.
So, we don't want any cheating.
We don't want any of that.
So, you catch what you catch and then you move on from there.
Okay.
But you're still going to have a good time.
This will still be a good weekend.
Yeah.
We have a blast.
Um, and the people still come in and they have fun and they enjoy themselves and they do, they do have fun.
And everybody has fun.
All of us, there's volunteers.
We enjoy every minute of it.
All right.
So, you can cancel that part, but we still have to.
Yes.
We still win the party, right?
This is, Belen Beggo is a destination.
That's what we like to refer to it as.
People come from, uh, we've had 19 different states.
We've had Hawaii, Alaska, California, Arizona, Maine, Rhode Island, New Jersey.
Now we have, Manitoba's coming in.
I mean, just people coming from all over.
So, it's a great time for everybody.
All right.
Uh, can you see a say and spell your name and give your title with the group?
Kurt Stamm.
St.
Oh, CRT.
St.
A.m.
And Belen Beggo, board of director.
All right.
That's all we need.
We'll let you get inside.
Perfect.
Oh, man.
Good luck.
Good luck, man.
Oh, man.
Okay.
I am really getting anxiety like my sister-in-law is already late.
You don't forget me, I can fuck the swabs.
We have to breathe it in a piece of foam.
I was doing some foam insulation.
And I fucking can't have one right in my arm.
And I couldn't get it out, it went down.
I don't know if I can get it out of here.
I'm going to try it a little bit.
Oh yeah, wait, you're going to do 12 people on this thing here.
Oh, that's going to be a great video, yeah.
Some two people on Snowville, two people in Sla-
We have to be a borrowed by our other machine out to somebody else,
brought his kid up, so we got familiar with him.
You walked out there, like two miles.
It's going to be a setting in light, it's not going to be,
it's going to be making fun of faves.
Here's all these jackasses that come from Illinois.
This is the modern version of like an Oregon Trail.
You go across the river.
We had like six guys in six legs and we're just ripping out there
because the tracks let you stand up and it rips you out there.
It's pretty good.
I would borrowed it out to screw a buddy yesterday without there.
I'm leaving him down until we get out there a little because
last we're off, I guess.
We're going down.
You guys are waiting for your fourth guide up.
Are we hurt or dampen your time?
We're going to launch a drone at some point.
We thought maybe once you're out there, we'll follow you out there with a drone.
We're going out there.
We're going through miles.
I have no idea where it's at.
I'm here for the Oregon Trail.
I'm 65 enjoying the ride, you know what I mean?
I feel like I'm a kid riding on the back, you know.
Thank God I could still do it.
There it is.
We're going through miles.
We don't have to be fast.
How big is it?
Yeah.
Holy cow.
It's a good size.
Yeah.
It's just a big fish, you know.
Well, I have four up in the 90s.
Okay.
Yeah.
There's a number of names in the description.
Right.
It's like a dinosaur.
No.
If we could just maybe...
Is that thing coming towards us?
I think so.
I think so, right?
Oh, is it not?
I thought it was.
Maybe it's not moving.
Are you sure?
It hasn't had loose since I've been looking at it.
Why do I feel like it's just getting closer and closer?
Yeah.
It's a little unnerving, right?
You're the one supposed to.
That's funny.
God, that'd be fucking high.
That'd be high before me.
So hit me cold the rest of the day.
Like, here's how you hit record and here's how you change battery.
Now you're freaking me out, man.
I don't want to be over here.
No, that is just thick enough for that.
If this thing is...
I'm not worried.
Well, if it's vehicles going over this,
it'll cause a little pressure to open that up.
Right.
You can see where the record is.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
We'll pull it.
Get some action.
Put it in the oven.
All right.
Put it in the oven.
All right.
Cybertruck.
Coming out of here.
Hold on.
Let me do a deal of purpose.