2019 NYS Winter Classic

[Finders Keepers]

Registration for this year's event opens October 1st with the option to join the NYS Classic Anglers Club where anglers in the club will have exclusive access to the club-only Facebook page, be invited to exclusive club membership outings and events, receive a free exclusive club decal and discounts on apparel. All the details will be released on Oct. 1st through Facebook and the website: www.NYSwinterclassic.com

 

Confirmed sponsors for this year's event include:

Batavia Downs Casino

Frabill

Plano

Clam

HT

Automatic Fisherman

Ice Well Live Well

Fillet Away Fish Mats

Aqua-Vu

Kahtoola

Makiplastic

Koyote Ugly Spoons

FishUSA

Bass Pro Shops

Field & Stream

Deep Freeze

Savage Gear

Green Mountain Sporting Supply

Nautic Sport

Deep Freeze

Rose Creek Anglers

CMe Trolling

Sullivan Tip Down

Hirsch Taxidermy

Vital Signs & Design

Northland Fishing Tackle

Ice Strong

Celox

Line Cutterz

Ice Fishing Tournament Guide

Let's Catch Fish

Takin' It Outdoors

The Outdoor Beat

Lake Ontario United

Nebulus

Soco Baits

Hammond Tackle

 

Many more to come once they are confirmed. The awards ceremony location will be determined and announced as soon as negotiations are finalized. There will be weekly awards packages again this year for the largest fish fish of each each category caught and a Grand Prize starting at $500 that will be a random draw from all 1st place finishers at the awards ceremony. If the event tops 1,000 anglers the weekly awards will include cash as well as prizes, and the Grand Prize increments to $2,000 cash. The full Prize Pool can be found off of the website link for "Prize Structure", the Weekly awards packages will be updated and posted later this fall once we begin to allocate all of the sponsored prizes. 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2018 by Finders Keepers

[Finders Keepers]

Mark the date: The awards ceremony for the 2019 Winter Classic will be hosted by the Batavia Downs Casino on March 16th where all Top-3 placing anglers across all 7 categories will be given free lodging as part of their awards package. There will also be a sportsman show preceding the awards during the day from 10-3. There are currently over 200 registered anglers, ahead of last year's count and on track to take the event over 1,000 participants this year where the Grand Prize increases and we start packing cash into the Weekly Awards (largest fish entered each week for each of the smaller species, and new leaders for the Pike, Trout, and Walleye). 

 

Get all the latest info and check out the newest weigh-in locations at: 

www.NYSwinterclassic.com

[FishnChef]

Looking forward to it!

Edited December 19, 2018 by FishnChef

[Finders Keepers]

100% of prizes and payouts have been given out (with few exceptions like acrylic angler achievement awards that have not been picked up and I don't want to ship due to a risk of breakage, and last year's Steelhead award that hasn't been completed yet by the artist due to a delay in supplies). Because this is a statewide event, those who do not attend the awards ceremony to pick up their prize(s) have had their prize(s) delivered to their nearest weigh-in when we travel the state. If they don't pick their prize up we have no control over that and we are not going to ship the prizes as the costs would be huge. Occasionally something falls through the cracks and we have made right on all of those instances - like last year there was a wrong count for the number of Clam buckets for the event - I accidentally put 35 into our inventory instead of 25 and we were 10 short. As it turned out, some anglers won multiple buckets and didn't want them so we ended up having extras to give to those who needed them still. Other anglers have thought they could get rich from our event and that we would be paying out $10,000's in the payout event though like most other events, this one has an incremented payout with the number of participants. With enough participation this event could be one of the highest paying events in the country, but we're not there yet. This event is also being run by a corporation that will cover its expenses to set up and run the event, so we do not offer a 100% payback like some would like us to. However, since it is a company running the event and we do an astounding amount of legwork you will not find another event with a greater amount of prizes to offload due to the amazing sponsor backing these events have. 

 

These statewide events are not for everyone and we realize that no matter how much effort we put into them we will not make all anglers happy - and that's ok. But anyone who says we have not paid out what we said we would or given out what we advertised we would is a naysayer and their allegations are simply not true. We can track down virtually every item and know exactly where it went. If an item is not won or given back to the event by an angler it is put back into the prize pool either for the Summer Classic or Winter Classic.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Finders Keepers

[FishnChef]

Thank you for the reply, above post changed accordingly

[Finders Keepers]

Tonight we confirmed that we will once again have 3 main Grand Prize Awards:

1. Cash Award (currently $500)

2. Aqua-Vu HD10i-Pro

3. Free Fish Mount from Hirsch Taxidermy

 

These will be awarded by random draw, first drawing for the seven 1st place anglers, second drawing from the seven 2nd place anglers, and third drawing from the seven 3rd place anglers.We will also have an Aqua-Vu Micro Revolution 5.0 Pro for the female angler that weighs in the largest overall fish for the ladies! 

 

Lots more to come, stay tuned! Follow all the action at: www.NYSwinterclassic.com

[EsoxAC3]

Am I correct in understanding that all of the first place anglers will be placed in a lottery and have a 1 in 7 chance ( unless an angler is first for more than one category) of winning the 500 dollar first place prize? And so on for second and third place.....


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[Finders Keepers]

Yes you are correct in the 1-in-7 shot, however the first place angler who is chosen will have the choice between the 3 Grand Prize awards ($500 Cash, $1,000 HD10i-Pro Aqua-Vu Camera, or Free Fish Mount), the Second Place angler chosen will have a choice of the two remaining prizes, and the third place angler chosen will receive the remaining prize. The $500 cash could also increase to $750 or $1,000 cash if we receive enough entries. I doubt we will see enough to push it more than $1,000 this year...

[EsoxAC3]

Thanks for the clarity! Yes, weather does not seem to be on our side this year.


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[Finders Keepers]

The NYS Winter Classic Awards Ceremony and NYS Spring Classic Sportsman Show are this Sat at Batavia Downs! Get all the info at: http://www.nyswinterclassic.com/2019/sportsmanshow.html

 

The show will be packed with deals, new gear releases, new concepts presented in seminars, giveaways, and much more! Show runs from 10am-3pm. See you there!!