The Day was February 6th, 2010. The place was Silver Lake, NY. The Event was the IFPA Qualifier Tournament. A twelve fish combination total weight pan fish event.
By: Nathan Krusko "Fishman"

Team Panfish Persuaders
PreFishing
     It starts like this the day before during pre-fishing, the reports are of scattered crappie in a small area. Now this is interesting since these were certain to be the kicker fish the ones that if you had them figured out you would almost be ensured a win. This seems to be a bit of a long shot. So time to drill the ice to resemble swiss cheese and start looking for these fish. Hours go by and still no confirmation first hand. These fish could not have left the area so I bank this information in my mind and the location in the GPS. Time to start looking for the sure bet. I am looking for safety in numbers, larger groups of bluegill which have a consistent size of a good weight. A weight if caught with any consistency would keep me in the top of the pack. I move on down the shore and pick a depth and start drilling my way down the shore and then back at another depth and again off into a third depth. The game plan is in motion. Time to start locating fish. With the first hole I find money (well not money but a large group of bluegill). This what I am hoping for. Things get better these fish start hitting my presentation with great aggression. Time to move and check the rest of the holes. Sure enough this depth has active fish in every hole with the same consistency. Time to move away before I am found out about. I retreat off to my deeper series of holes and start moving along hoping to find these crappie in slightly deeper water, suspended outside the weedline. This is nothing new, typically something they do in most bodies of water but I soon find out this is not the average crappie lake. As I keep moving the sonar display lights up. Now this is what I am hoping for! Time to flip over and get total secrecy in the confines of my shelter. I start jigging and soon I am catching perch. The plan has been change. I have located consistent bluegill a fish that I know that I can catch with 100% accuracy and I am sure that I will have enough to sort out in just a couple hours of fishing. Also I have a larger group of small perch that are within fifty yards of them. Now this is good. I am figuring that I can quickly catch and release my way through this group of perch and hopefully pick up a couple larger ones that will help add to my weight of bluegill. Perfect the plan is complete. Time to get off the ice.
Tournament Day

     The weather has completely changed. It is now 15 degrees colder than the day before and the wind is blowing at 30-40 miles per hour. This is sure to make things change. 6a.m. time for gear checks. The organizer (Byron) goes through everyones gear making sure everyone is obeying the rules. It is getting to be game time and the plan is beginning to move. Now lets get on the ice. We end up waiting until 7a.m. to be set free and off to our spots but we cannot start until 7:40a.m. I get in my spot with my partner and we set up. The plan is get these larger bluegill and move out in half an hour and off to our second bluegill spot near by. This second spot was the one with the large numbers. Success I have some good fish in the bucket. And we are off. In spot number two we start stacking up these bluegill left and right just as if nothing had changed from the previous day. But it has and I am yet to find out. Time is up here and now we move off for these perch. We get to the perch spot and start looking and quickly discover something in fact did change. The perch are not here. This is rough. I start drilling and looking but there were no fish in this area. In observation back to the launch I look around and notice something odd everyone in the rumored crappie spot still has not moved. Are they really banking on the lie and wait? It cannot be this is tournament day. Guys move around chasing the active fish. This is getting me a bit happy yet somewhat concerned at the same time. I suggest to my partner yet a long shot back up plan. We had chosen run and gun so time to ride it to the end. We cross the lake and are to quickly sort our fish and drill a few holes in this crappie spot from last year that I was told about from an individual the day before. Great the ultimate Hail Mary but as most games go the time quickly runs out.
     Off to the scales we go. As the teams come in I begin to see some of the fish. We are looking ok. Then come the teams from the rumored spot, and they have crappie in their buckets. I still hold on knowing that we have a good weight in the bucket. The numbers come in. I had set out to be in the top ten and as the weights were being shouted out I was feeling pretty good about my choice. A few surprises were random large perch weights. In the end Lie and Wait is what took the top of the day. Will there be a tournament plan change for the future? I am not sure. To those of you that are faced with the situation. Play it out the best that you can and just go for it. Pick your plan and do not look back. Yes, we did not take home the money but we were one down from where I had planed 11th. Still respectable and we did it with a good plan. Next time it may be different . To those of you that cannot decide on a plan maybe a combo of both with a time limit is the new plan. Who knows where the Ice Gods will lead you. But I now know they may lead me toward both.
Good Lock and Tight Lines