I will start this off by saying it was an honor and privilege to take part in the first in what I can only hope becomes an annual event for Ontarios bass Anglers. The Quinte Bass champs series broke ground or should I say "water" this past weekend and from what I can tell It was a huge success.The event saw close to 140 boats and nearly 300 anglers take part in a "big fish battle" on one of Ontario;s premiere fishing resources.. the Bay of Quite.
Hourly weighs in gave anglers the chance to take home $1000, $500, and $250 paychecks simply by weighing in one of the 3 largest fish each hour.. Im proud to say I could have weighed in a 3lb or larger fish each hour, yet opted for strategy and only weighed in 4 times, just missing a paycheck by 0.10lbs in hour 4.
Before I get into the results, I think it only prudent to give a shout out to the event organizers, this was a first class event from start to finish, ,every little detail was planned for, and carried out with a smile on their faces.
The blast off went as smooth as any 140 boat blast off could go, and each hour as you approach the weight in station there was a staff member on hand with in weigh in bag in hand, and ready to help with you boat. The Weigh in station itself could get hectic but the team there kept things moving and it was great to see some young kids on hand helping out and ensuring the future of this event.
Ok, Ok, here are the winners.. congrats to all those who weighed in fish, and even more so to those who took home pay checks.
(Photo courtesy of Quinte Bass Champs)
1st 5.11 lbs team 103 Rick Weagant, Gene Hills $1000, Murray Henderson Print
2nd 4.76 lbs team 18 Dave Young, Dan Mathieu $500
3rd 4.15 lbs team 6 Neil Farlow, Tom Streek $250
8-9 AM
1st 4.97 lbs team 47 Garnet Armitage, Wayne Misselbrook $1000, Murray Henderson Print
2nd 4.61 lbs team 100 Tom Davies, Dusty Craven $500
3rd 4.35 lbs team 52 Darrell MacLean, Adam Karlewicz $250, Shimano $150 certificate at ProAdvantage Sports & Hobbies, GLoomis Jacket
9-10 AM
1st 3.86 lbs team 77 Cam Brownson, Lee Branscombe $1000, Murray Henderson Print
2nd 3.85 lbs team 89 Bill Landman, Ross McIntosh $500
3rd 3.77 lbs team 80 Lorenzo D’Altorio, Hans Vaillancourt $250, Shimano $150 certificate at ProAdvantage Sports & Hobbies
10-11 AM
1st 5.54 lbs team 50 Gary Marks, Trevor Davies $2000 Bay Marine Big Fish of the Day, Murray Henderson Print
2nd 4.55 lbs team 105 Barry Pringle, Court Rose $500
3rd 3.75 lbs team 105 Barry Pringle, Court Rose $250
11-12 PM
1st 4.55 lbs team 16 Rich Letourneau, Kevin Weir $1000, Murray Henderson Print
2nd 4.25 team 30 James Walker, Steve Knapp $500
3rd 3.99 team 86 Eric Hill, Gord Burrowes $250
12-1PM
1st 4.93 lbs team 7 Gerry Ebel, Mike Brayford $1000, Murray Henderson Print
2nd 4.74 lbs team 42 Karl Neumayer, Pete Tucker $500
3rd 4.53 lbs team 61 Marc Schofield, Marty Gutzman $250, Shimano $150 certificate at ProAdvantage Sports & Hobbies
1-2PM
1st 4.10 lbs team 135 Gary Kapps, Randy Bergstrand $1000, Murray Henderson Print, Shimano $150 certificate at ProAdvantage Sports & Hobbies
2nd 4.09 lbs team 10 John Clayton, Barry Batson $500, GLoomis Jacket
3rd 3.87 lbs team 29 Murray Henderson, Murray Henderson Sr $250
2-3PM
1st 4.64 lbs team 112 Derek Thibault, Kevin Truelove $1000, Murray Henderson Print
2nd 4.42 lbs team 62 Jay Martin, Brad Arnott $500
3rd 4.07 lbs team 104 Curtis Richardson, Rob Webster $250
Now for some of my pics, Ill be honest, the action was so fast for the morning portion of the day, there was little time to take pics, but here are some shots of the behind the scenes of this great event
The Day started out a little scary, the clouds rolled in as blast off approached, with thunder and lightning crashing in the background. We all prepared to get a little wet
When the sun forced it's way through it was a beautiful day, and although it was not the last we would see of the rain clouds, it sure made for a great backdrop for blast off
As 6:45am approached, my tournament partner took the wheel, and got us in position for blast off, with 140 boats in the fold it was a huge advantage to be team 19 and get to blast off as part of the first 40.
As mentioned above, this whole event was well run, here is a great pic of the blast off team getting ready to get things started.. a bull horn and a Canadian flag says "wake up" to me
Part of our initial strategy was to weigh in any fish above 3lbs in the first hour.. well that only took 5 minutes as Dustin hooked into this nice little guy in his first or second cast. Coming in at the 3.5lb mark, it put us in second place for a few minutes anyways.
The storm really got the fish riled up, and the bite was hot for the first couple hours, we landed fish after fish, all of them over 2lbs and most over 3lbs. My thumb was worse for ware, but hey, it comes with the territory.
In hour 3, I landed my biggest fish of the day, a nice largemouth just over 3.6lbs, this time we opted for a bit more of a strategic play and sat outside the commitment markers with out minutes left in the hour. I knew we would not take top spot, but this fish had a great chance for second or third place money. with 1 minute left in the hour we crossed the markers and committed to weighing the fish. My excitement at my third place result was short lived as one more boat crossed the finish line with just seconds to spare and he knocked us out of third by 0.10lbs.
In our second spot of the day, we had an unexpected guest that seemed to really like the new Lice Target mouse, this Gar pike would not let go, but thankfully the mouse lived to fish the day
Just a nice scenery shot from under the bridge, we fished a thicker mat section looking for a frog bite, again we found fish, just not a $1000 one.
The weigh in station was just off the George street launch and the team was second to none, always ready with a helping hand and kept things moving smoothly.
All top weights were recorded on a white board as well as posted to twitter, so we were always on top of the current leading weights.
This is one of my favorite shots, of all the boats headed in for the final hours weight in. This is where things could have gotten hectic, but again they ran smooth, this was an easy off and on.
So again, congrats to all those who took home paychecks, but a bigger congrats to the team and sponsors that ran the event, This was a great experience, and if I was asked to sign up today for next years event I would not hesitate. I recommend you keep your eye on this one, as I think it would grow and I would be surprised if there are not more then 150 boats fishing it next season.
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