2012 Kingston Canadian Open

 Wow what a tournament! I always have so much fun in Kingston. Let me first tell you how my pre-fish went. The weather wasn’t always cooperating so I had to launch the boat from a different place every day close to where ever I was planning to fish that day. My fish where exactly where I left them last year and I notice that some bigger fish had moved in including some smallmouth! My problem was that there’s so many fish there that I was going to be culling all day. But what was bothering me the most was all the giant pike that I was seeing. On average I was catching about 6 to 8 pike a day and 2 or 3 of them were over 40”.

 Come day 1 I was feeling great, I knew my fish were there and all I had to do was get through enough of them every day to bring in 20 lbs a day which I thought would cut me a check. But first I had one stop to make, and that was to some secluded cane I found in a foot of water that was holding a few big largies. Well with a cold front that moved in overnight we were only able to pull two keepers and a 3.55 out flipping. So off to my deep grass drop shotting for largies. That’s right I dropshot largemouth in 18 to 25 feet of water over grass beds. I did this all three days and slammed them. Besides catching the odd toothy critter it was none stop action! Oh yeah there’s a pike out there with $500.00 of equipment in its mouth! It grabbed my bait from the side of the boat and took off with my rod! Lol! Yes I can laugh now but not yesterday morning, I knew that if I couldn’t move past it I might as well put my boat on the trailer.

 Well at the end of it all I was pretty consistent weighting in 15 to 16 pounds every day and having a blast doing it. I look forward to this tournament every year; I love Kingston and its people. I have so much fun hanging out with all the other anglers and meeting so many new people and making friends. The CSFL works so hard and does such a great job of everything it run so smooth. I would also like to thank Shimano for all they do to make this event possible and run so smoothly. Their live release boats are a great asset to the tournament industry here in Canada. So I ended up in 34^th fishing against the biggest names and the best sticks in Canada and I’m more than happy with that.  

 I would like to thank Russell Peters for his endless support, CPI Pictures and Management for everything they do with my career and the show. JB’s Fishing Depot, VIA Rail, Bay Marine, Xzone Baits, Sirius Satellite Radio. My St. Croix dropshot was great all the way till the pike stole it, and my BRP Evinrude never gave up in those giant swells bring me home safely every day.

 Tight lines everyone.

CSFL Georgian Bay & Gloucester Pool

 What a weekend! Prefished Thursday and Friday on both lakes found a ton of fish and shook off a ton more. Saturday was Georgian Bay, we had a 2 hour delay due to a tornado warning which never showed thank god but we did get a ton of rain. My fish were largemouth on a flat first thing in the morning. They come out there to feed for first light, They stay out there till about 10 am in 2 feet of water chasing bait fish, I have also caught the odd smallmouth there doing the same thing. It's a great place for me to do what I love to do the most which is throwing a swimbait. But with the rain and a big drop in temperature they weren't there so a flip'in we go. My partner for these events was Casey Ruttan, a great angler and a real funny guy. We flipped the rest of the day pulling fish out of clumps of weeds and managed to weight in 8.3 pounds for our 3 fish. I don't know why the bay has a 3 fish limit cause the lake is so health. Well the wind picked up in the afternoon so we gave enough time to make our way back safely. You always have to be careful when your dealing with weather on the Great Lakes. My Evinrude didn't miss a beat while I was working my way across the bay. I love my ETEC. We finished in 40th not great but it happens.

 Sunday was Gloucester Pool, I love this lake. I have had a spot on the pool for 3 years now and the fish have been there during practise but were never there tournament day leaving me high and dry to run and gun. Well they were there this time and we crushed them! Smallies in 25' to 50' of water. When we practised we were catch them dropshotting Xzone slammers but tournament morning they were all high just a foot down so we threw to the fish. Topwater smallies in 50' and it was crazy, we were culling by 9:30. As the day progressed the fish moved deeper and we moved with them. We went from topwater to jerkbait to dropshotting Xzone slammers. I tell you my St. Croix baitcasting dropshot rod it perfect in everyway. I was able to pull those big smallies up from the deep and never worrying about the rod giving to much slack or not giving enough for my 8 lbs fluro to hold. In the end we weighted in 15.15 lbs and came in 9th place. I had a great time, Casey fished hard and was a real pleasure to fish with. The CSFL did a great job as always keeping us safe on Saturday and making everything run smoothly.

 Well I have to go clean the boat and prep for a Renegade on the Ottawa river. Take care everyone and tight lines. 

2012 Renegade on Mississippi Lake

 Well last week was the first Renegade of 2012 on Mississippi Lake, I had never fished this body of water before and it took a bit to get my head around it. It's a shallow lake that seems to be a smallie lake, and the largies I was finding were deeper than the smallies! I spent 2 day practising and I thought I was gonna be alright but no I wasn't. Tournament day the fishing was slow and the bites were few and far between. I don't think there are a lot of big fish there but there are a lot of 2 to 4 pounders. So I didn't do so well but I did get on the board and got some points and my co-angler Nelson Oliveira did get us a good largie. The highlight of my day was sharing the stage as co-emcee with Big Jim. I had a blast, he was a very giving and we worked really well together to get every ones bag weighted and have the fish looked after properly. The whole Renegade crew worked hard and professionally in that crazy heat to make sure everything ran smoothly.

 I will be with Big Jim for the rest of the season call the weights and cracking jokes on the Renegade trail. So come out and check us out or tune in on the Renegade website at

http://www.renegadebass.com/  where have a live feed to all our weight-ins.

 Its time to sign off for now I'm sitting in my hotel room in Midland getting ready to pre-fish for a tournament on Georgian Bay in the morning.

Take care & tight lines.

Mike.