DEVILS LAKE (AP) - The term "Bucket brigade" took on new meaning as nearly 4,000 anglers converged on the ice of Six-Mile Bay for the Devils Lake Volunteer Fire Department's 24th annual fishing tournament.

As North Dakota ice fishing "happenings" go, they don't get any more happening than this.

"Mad Bomber" hats, plastic sleds and 5-gallon buckets - the essential ice fishing accessory - were the order of the day as the crowd gathered to try their luck in one of the 5,000 holes volunteers had drilled Saturday morning.

And with more than $150,000 in prizes, the anglers had the opportunity to land a lot more than fish.

Fishing wasn't required; most of the prizes were awarded by raffle during Saturday night festivities in the Devils Lake Memorial Building.

This year's grand prize was a 2008 Ford F-150 four-door pickup, and Ryan Satterlund of Grand Forks walked away with the big kahuna during Saturday night's raffle.

The fire department sells 12,000 tickets at $25 a pop for the annual fundraiser, and tickets are gone within weeks after going on sale in October.

Organizers would have been hard-pressed to order better weather than they got Saturday. By the time the starter whistle blasted at 1 p.m., the temperature was in the balmy mid-teens, though a stiff wind made it feel colder.

"Last week, it was 15 below and making ice for us," Perry Garske, a member of the tournament committee, said from the heated comfort of the weigh-in trailer set up on the ice. "Now, we've got 15 above."

It was quite a contrast from last year, when about 2,800 people braved 20 below zero temperatures, and fish were flash-frozen as soon as they came out of the holes.

"We had people coming off the ice delirious last year," said Roger Hollevoet of Devils Lake, one of the tournament volunteers.

There was no delirium this year, only fun, as tournament participants huddled by their ice holes, some keeping warm with charcoal briquettes burning in tin cans, and waited for a fish to bite.

It didn't take long. The first fish of the day, a .34-pound perch, came to the scales just three minutes into the afternoon.

Adam Erickson of Galesburg was the lucky fisherman.

"Just pure luck," he said.

About that same time and 100 yards to the north, Lacey Dahle and Lori Spiker were set up on the outer edge of the crowd and hoping for some pure luck of their own.

Dahle and her husband, Marcus, who was fishing just a short distance away, moved to Devils Lake from Big Timber, Mont., last summer.

"The property's cheaper here, and we like the fishing," she said. "Montana is getting overrun."

For Spiker, Saturday's tournament was her first-ever taste of ice fishing. She and Lacey's father, Jon Mack, had made the trek from Big Timber just for the occasion.

"We drove down here to sit on the ice and look down a hole," Spiker said with a laugh.

Said Lacey: "We're really getting her broke in."

Still, the two women were bundled up and keeping warm.

"We'll tough it out right to the end," Spiker said. "I just wish something would hit. I wouldn't want to go home with nothing."

Tournament organizers offer prizes for the five largest perch, walleyes and northern pike, but it's not the biggest fish that land the top prizes.

This year, for example, the fourth-largest perch was good for a 2008 Chevy Colorado, and Jerod Rienisch of Bismarck landed the truck with a .68-pound perch.

In the walleye category, Lorrie Opdahl of Westhope took home a four-wheel drive ATV with her third-largest walleye, which weighed in at a measly 0.48 pounds.

Al Desrosier of Roseau, Minn., wasn't thinking about big prizes when he landed a northern that weighed 5.70 pounds. Not until he rejoined his fishing crew, at least, and was informed that the second-biggest pike was worth an Ice Castle fish house, a palace on wheels that's every bit as snazzy as the name suggests.

Desrosier's pike was the second largest when he weighed it in with about an hour left in the tournament. When the tournament ended, coming in second had never felt better.

"That last half-hour was the most nerve-racking fishing I've ever had," said a smiling Desrosier, who had fished the tournament the last four or five years without so much as a bite.

Put nearly 4,000 people on the ice, and you're bound to run into some colorful characters. On Saturday, few were more colorful than the "Perky in Pink" girls, a collection of eight Devils Lake women who wore stocking caps they had custom-made just for the occasion.

And make sure, they said, to put in a plug for Creative Impressions, the shop that made the caps on short notice.

The pink-headed gals weren't catching fish, but no one could accuse them of not having fun.

"Not even a bite," said Louise Prozinski, adding with a laugh: "We're doing catch-and-release."

The clock was ticking down, and the Perky in Pink girls hadn't yet caught anything to release. But that didn't phase Sheryl Moe, who augmented her pink hat with "Vikings Purple" snow pants.

"They've had winning fish come in with one minute to go," Moe said. "So, we're sticking it out until the very end."

The fish apparently weren't impressed by the hats, but the Perky in Pink girls were in good company; out of nearly 4,000 anglers, only 25 fish - 11 northerns, 10 perch and four walleyes - were brought to the scales Saturday.