A Visit To The Bass Pro Shops 2011 Lake Simcoe Open
This past Saturday, October the 22nd, was the 2011 version of the Bass Pro Shops Lake Simcoe Open in Orillia, Ontario.
I have to admit it – this was my first ever visit to a bass tournament! I have watched many tournaments online but never actually been present at one. I decided to change that on Saturday and attend the weigh-in at Couchiching Beach Park.
Two minutes after getting out of the car I turned to Darrell with a crazy grin on my face and said, “Look at all the eye candy!”. Of course, the eye candy I was referring to was in the form of beautiful boats! Never before had I seen so many nice boats. Bass boats always excite me.
We missed the first few teams weighing in – largely because our eyes were wandering over the boats still on the water and those now on their trailers. After finding a spot in the crowd we quickly realized how tough a tournament it had been. Many conversations within hearing range focused on how hard it was to come by bites. Most teams sure didn’t have to worry about culling.
I was intrigued to hear the discussions and watch as fish were brought in. I never get to spend time around that many other anglers and I was eager to learn everything I could. And a strange thing started to happen to me – I felt my competitive spirit, missing for a few years now, starting to return. In the span of an hour that afternoon I went from thinking tournaments would never really be my thing, to thinking we need to buy a bass boat and I need to get my butt entered in some tournaments! I want to be testing my skill and my luck against other anglers. I left Orillia determined to do everything in my power to make that happen.
One of my favorite moments from the weigh-in was seeing the team of Bill Gray and Rob Gray bring their one lone bass to the scale for a total weight on 1.2lbs. It was a riot seeing that little guy held up and I thought it was a very sporting gesture to at least come to the scales with whatever was caught.
Of course, at the end of the day it’s all about winning the $20,000 first prize and that honor went to Wayne and Gail Misselbrook, the last team to weigh-in, for their 5-bass limit of 28.5lbs. Congratulations!
Gail and Wayne Misselbrook
The top 5 teams were:
- Wayne Misselbrook & Gail Misselbrook – 28.5
- Scott Murison & Paul Hecking – 28.2
- Mat Belzil & Jay Clay – 27.4
- Robert Formosa & Jayson Saliba – 26.65
- Alex Campbell & Todd Currie – 26.45
argosgirl
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