This is a two day boater/non-boater format tournament, where you fish with a different angler each day. The boater is trying to catch a 5 fish bag and the non-boater is trying to catch a separate 3 fish bag to weigh in, with the hopes of finishing as one of the top 8 boaters or top 8 non-boaters to make Team Ontario and qualify to fish in the B.A.S.S. Nation Championships in the USA where the winners of that event get to fish in the legendary B.A.S.S. Masters Classic!!
I travelled to the tournament with a fellow Ottawa Valley South Bassmasters we spend the Thursday before the tournament pre-fishing and scouting and caught a few small fish but nothing great. On the Friday I jumped in the boat with Charles Sim for a little more scouting and pre-fishing again we found some fish, but in general pretty much everyone was reporting pre-fishing was very, very tough even the local anglers.
With tough pre-fishing, big storms the day before the tournament, a long holiday weekend and 80 boats and 160 anglers in search of bass.... it was going to be an interesting tournament.
Unfortunately for me and numerous other anglers the fishing Saturday and Sunday was still slow. very slow, only catching a few small bass over the weekend. Some anglers did figure it out and several 21 pound five fish bags were brought in and a couple 3 fish non-boater bags of close to 14 pounds were caught!!
Even though the fishing was tough, it was a great four days hanging out, fishing, eating, joking around, we rented a cottage with 7 of us in it so no shortage of fun.
The fishing might have been slow, but the after fishing snacks were good. lol
So not my best tournament ever, but already looking forward to next year's OBN Hank Gibson Provincial Qualifier up north on Lake Temiskaming out of Temiskaming Shores..... bring on the smallmouth bass!!
Hoping for some redemption the following weekend I fished the Ottawa Valley South Bassmasters tournament on Mississippi Lake, it was a fun day on the water and the rain held off until the last 2 hours of the tournament but stopped for weigh in.
We covered a lot of water catching only one or two bass and some not welcome pike at each stop. My boater angler, Dave had the hot stick of the day pitching a plastic craw and in the end we weighed in a respectable 15.4 pounds, good enough for 5th place.
Well I have a few things going on the next few weeks, so I will be off the water for a bit, but I have a couple awesome upcoming fishing trips in the works.... so stay tuned.
Tight lines.
