A look back at the 2024 season, part two

In May, we finally got home for a little bit, which was nice. We live in one of the most beautiful parts of the World here in Northwest Ontario and we have amazing fishing so I'm always happy when I get to fish and explore around home.

Walleye fishing is always good!

So is the pike!

And so is the smallmouth fishing!

In June we had two events in Alabama, at Wheeler Lake, followed by Smith Lake. Wheeler did not go awesome, I missed the cut by ounces and lost a fish the second day that would have got me in, but Smith went good. We had a week to kill in between so I just hung out at Lake Guntersville and it was a blast. I had some great days out there and caught a bunch of nice fish during the week and worked on my ledge fishing game. Hopefully we'll visit Guntersville again in the near future. 

Smith in another good spotted bass lake, which I really enjoy fishing. They have an attitude similar to smallmouths but we don't have them in Canada, so they are a unique fish. In most lakes they don't get very big, so it's special when you fish the lakes where they get to be four and five pounds.

In July, I got to fish a couple of tournaments around home at Shoal Lake and then the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship at Rainy Lake. Shoal Lake did not get very good but we had a good run at the FFCBC. 
John Peterson, who founded Northland Fishing Tackle, and I have fished this tournament together since 2007 and have had a lot of good days on Rainy Lake over the years. We ended up finishing fourth this year after a bit of a slow start on day one, it was a good week!

In August we were back on the road for the last two Elite events of the year out in New York. Shelby and I stayed at a really cool place called the Red Rock Lodge, on the shores of Lake Superior on our way out there. Very cool spot.

Heading into the last couple tournaments, I was going to need a pair of solid finishes to make the Classic. We hit Lake Champlain first and it was a great week out there. I love fishing that place because of the numbers of bass there, the place is a factory. The first day when great and then the second day turned into a grind, I just couldn't find them and the day got away on me. Missed the cut again by ounces and it was not looking good for me to get into the Classic with one event left.

I figured I probably would need a top 20 in this final event to have a shot at making the Classic, so I needed to catch some fish. Like many of the anglers, I made the run out to Lake Ontario the first couple days and caught some solid limits. I was in 14th place heading into the weekend. On day three the wind blew hard so I decided I would spend my time in the river where I would be able to fish. It was over two hours for me to get out of my stuff on the lake when it was calm, I just wouldn't have had enough time to fish out there. Fortunately, things worked out and I put together a 20 pound bag in the river and we finished up in 15th place, to qualify for the 2005 Bassmaster Classic!!!

A big congratulations to fellow Canadian angler Chris Johnston on his Bassmaster Angler of the Year win! We've been friends for a long time so I was proud to see him get that trophy. I've had a front row seat to their dominance over the years, it's been really impressive!