Master Angler Award winner Clayton Harris, left, and Tournament Director Ian Fisher

ESCANABA — The U.P. Ice Anglers League’s Upper Peninsula Tournament Fishing is a virtual catch and release tournament that ran ran from January-March.

Competitors fished for walleye, pike, perch in the Predator series and bluegill, crappie in the panfish series. Competitors could fish any public body of water located in the U.P.

Most of the competitors fished on Little Bay de Noc but, there were competitors from all over. Some located in Chassel and some in the Iron Mountain area.

Competitors would submit fish via an app on a smartphone. They would place the fish on a bump board, take a picture for measurement submission, and then video of them releasing the fish.

Afterwards the submission would be sent in for verification by the tournament director.

The app would update the leaderboard standings throughout the entire tournament run time. At the end of the tournament a GPS verification was performed to confirm no fishing took place outside of the U.P.’s boundaries. Competitors where’d awarded for first through third place positions based on the total of their “stringer of fish” in length.

Awards were provided by Blades Bait and Tackle, Beavers lures, U.P. Chimney Inc. and Bark River Glitter.

There was an additional award called the Master Angler Award. This award recognized the angler who had the most and highest top three positions across all of the species fished for during the tournament.

The winner of that award was Clayton Harris. Clayton pulled six master angler class fish through the ice this season.

The tournament had a turnout of 30 anglers for the season

“We where happy with the turnout for our first year and hope that we can build from that next year as we do plan on running this league next ice season. Additionally we have moved forward with an open water league as well that will run from June-September,” organizers said.

Additional information can be found on the group’s Facebook page Upper Peninsula Tournament Fishing.