2017 Summer Bass Tournaments

After a tough season south of the border, things got back on track around home this summer with some good events.  We have some of the best open, team bass tournaments in North America here in the Lake of the Woods/Rainy Lake areas.  They are well attended community run events with great payouts and awesome fishing.  

In early July my buddy Karl Engstrom and I took second at the Shoal Lake Bass Classic, a long running event on Shoal Lake that has been going on since the early 90's.  I love fishing on this lake and while I usually like to fish for largemouths on this lake, most of the fish we weighed in were smallmouths caught on topwater baits like the Jackall SK Pop Grande.   

Later in July I fished the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship with my good frind John Peterson.  We had a good tournament and ended up finishing 5th.  We caught our fish on a variety of baits in this one - Impulse Tubes, topwaters and spinnerbaits.  This is one of the premier bass tournaments in Canada and takes place every year on Rainy Lake.  

In August I fished the Kenora Bass International on Lake of the Woods with my Dad.  This was my first tournament back in 1993 when I was 10 years old.  I fished with my Dad for the first few years then didn't fish with him for nearly 20 years so it was fun to get back in the boat with him - we had a great tournament and finished fourth.  

Later in August Scott Dingwall won the International Falls Bass Championship on Rainy Lake.  We had two amazing days of fishing - a couple of my best ever on Rainy!  We caught our fish in open water on topwaters, suspending jerkbaits and tubes.  

After a third place finish at Bassin' For Bucks with my long time partner, Mike Reid, my girlfriend Shelby Larson and I took third at the Crow Lake Classic on Crow Lake.  It was her first tournament and we had a great time despite some challenging weather!  We're going back next year for sure!  

Third place in Shelbs first tournament!  

Later in September my pal Denny Favreau and I won the Shoal Lake Last Tournament - our fourth time winning this one since we started fishing way back in 2001!  We had a mixed bag of largemouths and smallmouths, weighing over 18 pounds each day.  It was a fun weekend.  We caught fish on a bunch of different baits in this derby...spending our time fishing both shallow and deep.  

Ended the season fishing the Whitefish Bay Fall Classic with Mike Richards.  We had an awesome first day but a rough day two and finished just out of the money.  Still a fun weekend on Lake of the Woods, as always!  

I encourage anybody who is looking to fish a fun bass tournament to visit Northwest Ontario and fish in one of the great events that we have.  Feel free to fire away if you have any questions about any of our tournaments! 

Best new Product of 2017

One of the coolest new things that I've seen this year are the new NON-PUNCTURING Cull tags from T-H Marine.  Check them out on the video!
 

The new 15 foot talon is coming!!!

Earlier this summer I got to throw a couple of the new Minn Kota 15 foot Talons on my boat and play with them for a day...all I can say is that they are awesome!!!  Check out the video:

Fun Summer of Fishing!!!

Everybody knows that I love to compete in bass tournaments and next week I'll share some photos and info from all of the bass tournaments that I have fished around home this summer.  In between tournaments, I fish a lot, for everything...bass, walleye, pike, musky, crappie and even lake trout.  The beauty of fishing Lake of the Woods and Sunset Country in general is we have SO MANY awesome fishing opportunities!  
Here are some fun photos from this past summer:

Earlier in September my girlfriend Shelby caught her first musky and it was a beauty!  She was pumped, I was proud, pretty awesome stuff!  You never know when you're going to hook one of these critters on these lakes in NW Ontario!

In May I got to spend a day fishing with my good pal Jay Siemans - Jay is one of the BEST photographers I have ever met and he's doing very well for himself, traveling all over the place for photo and video shoots.  
This was one of the great shots that Jay got that day!  Check out his website at www.jaysiemensmedia.com  

My brother Ben lives in Toronto so he doesn't get to hit the water in Sunset Country as much as he used to.  He was back for a week in August and we had a pretty good day smallmouth fishing out on the Winnipeg River!  He still knows how to catch'em! 

In July I had the honor of taking our Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, out for a boat ride on Lake of the Woods, along with his daughter, Ella-Grace.  It was very cool to get to spend some time with them out in the boat, we talked fishing, camp living and fun stuff!  My Dad was along driving some of his security guys with us.  

The boat ride with our Prime Minister!  Headed through Devils Gap on Lake of the Woods.  

More people visit Sunset Country www.visitsunsetcountry.com to catch walleyes than any other species and for good reason.  We have some of the best walleye fisheries on the planet - for both big fish and numbers.  If you come and visit us to catch a few walleyes, make sure you experience a shore lunch!  
In that walleyes mouth is a Northland Fire-Ball Jig - the best jig ever made for fishing with live bait.  The short shank jig presents the bait in a more natural fashion and they virtually eliminate line twist that you get with regular jigs.   

These lake trout are some of the funnest fish to catch and the most beautiful!  They are some tough fighters!  

2017 FLW Tour Season - Part 2

While the season started out good, it went downhill for me after the first couple of events.  When the season was finally over, I was actually kind of glad, it just felt like I couldn't get a break.  I had fun, always do visiting new bodies of water and getting to hang with all my pals on Tour but the pressure really started to build up - to cash a check, qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup and do well for all my friends and family that support me.  It's in the books now and I'm gearing up to kick ass again in 2018!

We visited Lake Cumberland, Kentucky in early April which was an uneventful week for me.  After that we went to Beaver Lake, Arkansas, which is a lake I have been to several times and had a great tournament at last year.  My practice at Beaver went well but the water levels changed drastically between the end of practice and the start of the tournament because of heavy rains so that really hurt my finesse program that I had going.  

My first day at Beaver went pretty good and I stayed within check range but my second day really stunk.  I made the mistake of trying to fish the way I did all week but a lot of the fish moved shallow because of the quickly rising water...learn and carry on I guess! 

Prior to going to Beaver I spent a couple days at Table Rock Lake in Missouri fishing with some sponsor folks and the fishing there was awesome, weather was not. It's one of my favourite lakes that I have visited in the U.S. 

After Beaver the next event was at the Mississippi River, out of Lacrosse, Wisconsin.  This picture of the flat tire on my truck pretty much sums up my week there.  Not good.  99th place I think.

Prior to the Mississippi event, Minnesota Vikings superstar Brian Robison hosted a charity tournament that matched FLW Tour pros up with Vikings players and alumni.  It was a great time!  My partner and I finished 2nd in that one...of course it was for fun!  We caught some beauty fish on Pool 5 of the river, that was fun.
Here are a few of my northern FLW pals - Matt Stefan, myself, Andy Young and Austin Felix alongside Robison.

The final event of the season took place at the Potomac River out in Maryland.  One last chance to make some money and qualify for the Cup.  Unfortunately my mediocrity continued and I ended up with a 70 something finish and missed making the Cup by 11 points.  I worked hard, didn't lose any fish, it just wasn't meant to be I guess.  

The good news my girlfriend Shelby flew down to the last tournament to check out the event and help me out with the long drive home.  We had fun, did a little shopping, went to a concert in Pittsburgh and made it back in one piece!  Bring on 2018!