For the past 13 years I have fished the bass opener on Lake Simcoe and for years before that on Georgian Bay. For two decades it has been the “best day of the year” and typically met with anxious hours of preparation. But this year family commitments was to keep me off the water.
Its 5:45, the latest I have slept in months. I’m disoriented and feel like I have forgot something or like there was a life changing event about to happen. The night before my family event was cancelled and I’m still not panicking to get ready. For the past so many years I have fished the Casey Cup tournament on Simcoe. Today I was doing nothing. The phone rings and it is Bob Formosa. “I’m in Barrie and I’ll be there is 30 minutes, we are going to Parry Sound” Me “I can’t go to Parry Sound I just got out of bed”. Bob “I think it’s against the law to miss bass opener” Ten minutes later Bob is in my driveway and I’m getting rods together.
By 8:00 we are on the water and heading out of the Sound. We are approaching the train trestle no wake zone to the South Channel and some clown with a Stanley Boat full of building supplies comes through full tilt and creates a huge wake through the narrow passage. The bow of Bob’s bass boat comes crashing down and all of the electronics quit. It has been a long time since we haven’t had a GPS on GBay. But other than not having a sonar we know the waters like the back of our hands so we continue. We had no idea where we wanted to go because as good as the bass fishery is, that neck of the water is typically spent looking for big pike in the spring.
We pull into a bay and start catching small bass while looking for big pike. Big GBay pike like it cool and typically are moving out of the bays at this time of year. We thought we might catch some stragglers. I wasn’t to be so we headed further out in the bay. We went to a shallow dirty top shoal that normally produces some big bass. When I say dirty top I mean broken rock, gravel, big rocks and some amber signs of life. Georgian Bay has an endless supply of picture perfect smooth top shoals with aquarium looking water around them. They are beautiful but not fertile. Any structure can hold fish and big predators for ambush or sunning in the warm sun. But the shoals that produce most of the fish are the dirty shoals that can produce life in the warm sun. This is where the food web starts and everything goes to feed.
We started casting jerk baits and spinnerbaits and after 20 minutes there was still no sign of bass. This was odd because the conditions were perfect. Bob says “it isn’t happening here” and one last cast and wham! The reason there was no bass was because the other species we were looking for was up feeding.
We leave and head to another area further out and in the maze of rocks and shoals we start picking up some nice bass in the 5 pound class. Georgian Bay bass are crazy. Not like Simcoe smallies that are too fat to and just drag you around. Gbay bass are aerial and every ounce of flesh is power. Whoever originally said smallmouth pound for pound are the strongest fresh water fish must have been fishing on Gbay.
A dozen nice fish later I plant some rubber on a shoal and a rocket rips through the surface. I boat a nice 4 pound rainbow. Now we only need a musky and a walleye to complete the species list.
The plan was to be back in Orillia by 5:00 so at 4:45 we finally call it a day and head back to the Sound. This was the best bass opener I have had in years since the time when Georgian Bay was my home waters. I guess it always will be.
After getting back 3 hours late I was too exhausted to tie lines for the CSFL Couchiching tournament the next day. The forecast for the next day was crappy, turning to even more crappy, and finally getting worse in the late afternoon. High winds and relentless rain and cold to boot. What more could you ask for! At 4:00 a.m. I roll out of bed and head out to the boat to tie lines in the rain. I get a text from James Gignac my partner asking if I was sure I wanted to do this. I said yes and at 6:00 I rail the boat out of the boathouse and take the 15 minute ride in the rain to the Port of Orillia. By 6:30 I’m soaked.
At 7:00 we blast off with a game plan and as we head across the lake at 50 MPH the rain was stinging our face and the cold water was already running down my neck. On days like this some expect a tough bite. But the water is warm and the weather system as shitty as it was had been here for 3 days so consistency is all that is required for a good bite. We start by picking up a few smaller fish and by 9:00 have a limit of largemouth. Then we start to catch some better smallmouth and end up culling our whole limit with smallies. Then James hits a really nice largemouth in about one foot of water so we stay on that program and cull most of our fish with better largemouth.
We are starting to put together a nice bag of fish and just need a kicker to start to get in the hunt for a win. I cast near shore, feel a tick and set the hook and up comes a huge mouth to the surface. The fish dives and I could tell it was very big and just as I say to James “did you see the size of that thing” the line goes limp. How deflating. To top it off 15 minutes later I do it all over again. James was working us into contention and I’m doing everything I can to avoid success. Finally I cast and feel the line load and up comes a Simcoe size smallie. We are now starting to catch some nice smallies and culling our whole bag of largemouth.
It never stopped raining all day. I’m soaked and freezing and as much as I wanted to get a kicker fish we finally head in. I say to James “ do you think we are much over 17 pounds?” James is managing the fish because I have a track record of tossing bigger fish than I have in the livewell. He says we’ll have to wait for the scales. We check in and could hear Peter and Pat Marrocco and already in with over 18 pounds and even though we didn’t think we had enough to win even on such a crappy day, we thought we might make the top 5. Everyone is weighing in ahead of us and I start to load the bag with fish. But now the fish are looking bigger. We are near the last to weigh-in and we could hear Brian Gardy and Brent cotton just weighed 20.20 followed by Eric Luzak and Tom Hardy with 22.25. I’m thinking wow nice bags for a day like this.
Eric and Tom are on the hot seat and Andy Pallotta starts to weigh our fish one by one. He is up to the 4th fish and we already have 16.85. I’m wondering where these fish came from. He puts the last big smallie in and the scales say 20.40, just about 3 pounds more than I thought we had. Normally I’m within a ½ pound but I guess my brain was waterlogged. That was good for 2nd so a nice surprize. Of course now those big lost fish come back to haunt you but everyone losses fish in tournaments.
It is amazing that 46 teams completed the tournament in that weather. Everyone looked like wet rats as the only thing generating any heat is everyone shaking. I drive my boat back to the boathouse. My face is red from rain hitting my face. I feel like I just had a wet sanded facial. I’m freezing and soaked inside and out. I’m so soar I can barely walk up to the house. What a great weekend!! One of the most memorable bass openings ever.
COMPETITIVE SPORT FISHING LEAGUE
BASSMANIA TOURNAMENT TRAIL - WESTERN/BM100 TOURS
LAKE COUCHICHING, ORILLIA - JUNE 28, 2015
Position Angler Co-Angler Weight Big Fish HP Points AC
1 Erik Luzak Tom Hardy 22.25 250 200 46
2 John Whyte James Gignac 20.4 225 199 45
3 Brian Gardy Brent Cotton 20.2 225 198 44
4&5 Peter Marrocco Pat Marrocco 18.4 250 197 43
4&5 Bill Todd Brian Moore 18.4 250 197 43
6 Gary Miller Jay Reiners 17.75 6 LM & OA 300 195 41
7 Rick Agar Mike Agar 17.5 4.85 SM &BM100 90 194 40
8 Jamie Janzen Jon Yancoulis 16.2 250 193 39
9 Steve Rowswell Matt Campbell 16.15 115 192 38
10 Jordan MacIntyer Corey Moreau 15.95 90 191 37
11 Justin Fung Alan Mactangay 15.65 150 190 36
12 Bill Walker Kal Vaisanen 14.8 200 189 35
13 Steve Clark Dave Norgrove 14.6 250 188 34
14 Ryan Crowley Jay Short 14.35 115 187 33
15 George Koufis Scott Chantler 14.35 115 187 33
16 Jeff Emms Matthew Carles 13.8 150 185 31
17 Jim Vlenizelakos Joseph Zacchigna 13.65 275 184 30
18 Shawn Beers Doug Burrows 13.2 90 183 29
19 Wayne Currah Niel Harmer 12.9 115 182 28
20 Kirk Sullivan Kevin Sullivan 12.65 250 181 27
21 Dan Risorto Frank Perciasepe 12.4 250 180 26
22 Patrick Zajdel Spencer Guffney 12.35 175 179 25
23 Ernest Matton Richard Huffman 12.25 200 178 24
24 Henry Nguyen Bert Martucci 12.2 150 177 23
25 Rob Guzzo Mike Guzzo 12.1 75 176 22
26 Cole Vardy Bill Vardy 11.85 225 175 21
27 Cole Chantler Steve Chantler 11.5 250 174 20
28 Matt Pezzetta David MacInnes 11.45 200 173 19
29 Paul Hall Joe Turk 11.2 250 172 18
30 Rudy Manning Gord Farwell 11.15 250 171 17
31 Chuck Allan Paulo Filice 11.1 250 170 16
32 Shawn Zuriwski Scott Blake 11.1 200 170 16
33 Mike Bowler Dylan Spatz 10.25 90 168 14
34 Ryan Taylor Hugh Woodward 9.75 200 167 13
35 Andrew Campbell Brent Maw 9.65 115 166 12
36 Cearin Hester Brian Norman 9.15 150 165 11
37 Mike Lafreniere Derek Lafreniere 8.7 115 164 10
38 Paul Tsigaris Craig Denobrega 7.3 115 163 9
39 Brian Hughes Bert Balas 7.15 250 162 8
40 Aaron Andres Patricia Seaton 6.85 225 161 7
41 Andy Soan Mitch Raven 6.4 150 160 6
42 Joe Nobili Michael Oppedisano 3.15 115 159 5
43 Mike Kewell Tony Kewell 1.45 115 158 4
44 Rick Barton Jake Barton 120
45 Mike Brown Nelson Oliveira 250
46 Jason Godin Anthony Burgess 150 
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