Is Minnesota’s Biggest Ice Fishing Contest Cancelled?

After an abnormally warm start to winter filled with poor ice conditions and multiple ice rescues, it can be easy to see why people might be wondering about the Brainerd Jaycees Ice Fishing Extravaganza, known by many as Minnesota's biggest ice fishing contest.

UPDATE: Organizers have announced plans for the event, which will still be held on February 3. Read the updated plans here. 

Around Christmas, Gull Lake (where the contest is held) was almost completely wide open. Fast-forward a few weeks, and we have received some colder conditions to create ice. But, will it be enough ice to support the thousands of people who fish on Hole In The Day Bay for the annual contest?

Billed as the "largest charitable fishing contest on earth", there is a lot of interest in this annual fishing contest. And it appears a "jokester" has been spreading some misinformation about the contest.

A Facebook group called "Crow Wing Department of Memes" recently shared a "satirical" post claiming that the annual ice fishing contest, which happens in Crow Wing County, was canceled. The issue at hand is that there has been no announcement made by organizers about this year's event yet.

While icemaking got off to a late start, it has been much colder lately, helping the case for the event to possibly still happen in early February, as scheduled.

In response to heat the meme Facebook page got over the false information they shared, they deleted the original post and shared a couple of other posts to offer some clarification that it was "just a joke" One of the posts said "Don't believe everything you see on the internet people. This is a SATIRE PAGE"

While they do note that they are a satire page, they don't consider that many people don't necessarily look at the origin of posts shared on social media, rather just looking at the content. While that is a bad practice for social media users in general, the page did get some heat from some online, saying the post crossed the line, saying this isn't a meme and rather just fake news.

The organizers of the Ice Fishing Extravaganza shared a post over the weekend in response to the situation, clarifying that the status of this year's contest has not yet been determined.

Get our free mobile app

While they didn't rule out that the event could be canceled (or maybe postponed), they did point out that it is quite cold, which will help make more ice ahead of the event, scheduled for February 3, 2024. They also encouraged the public to be sure to get updates from "reliable resources", noting they will share any updates via their social media and website.

While it is plenty cold this week, it is expected to warm up some for the end of January. As the ice fishing contest organizers work with public safety officials to make a decision about the event over the next couple of weeks, we'll share the latest as it becomes available.