I started bass season helping out at the Catch a Dream event. Its a big brothers and sisters event, where with their "littles", they get to go on a tournament boat with the angler to do some fishing. They have a full blown weigh in, food, raffles, and have great prizes for everyone. Even the volunteers get prizes, I won a Simax rod! It really was a nice way to spend the opener, even though I didn't make a single cast, I spent the day doing my 2nd favourite thing....BBQ'ing! I got to meet some great people, talk to kids about there first angling experience, and got an awesome fishing rod!
A week later, I fished my first tournament, and it was a blast! I caught some of the biggest buckets I have ever caught, and I was in the fastest boat I've ever been in! We placed 3rd, with just over 11 lbs all largemouth. We fished the bank of the Holland river, with all the big guys coming off flipping jigs.
The following week end, I took my girlfriends cousin fishing. It was her first time ever, so to start I brought her out for some panners. She had a blast, and by the end of the first day, she was fishing with out a float, unhooking her own fish, and even giving them a kiss before she released them. On day 2, she was setting the hook like a pro, got almost no line tangles, and even started using some lures! She's a natural, but I think she had help from a good teacher! lol.
Here are some pics from day 2 spent on Simcoe.
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She managed to get her bait under the dock, and landed this smallie..she decided to keep this one for the table.  |
| Her first bass! |
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| We spotted a feeding bowfin! Wish I had my flipping stick! |
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| She ended up with BASS thumb! |
Needless to say, she's already asking when we are going to go fishing again! I've been out a couple times on my own, hooked into some smaller bass, and spotted some nice sized smallies cruising the shallows, but couldn't convince them to hit anything! I have an itch to hit some summer pike, hopefully I get out for them soon, I have a few tournaments coming up in the next 2 weeks and don't think I'll have time to fish too much in between.
