Product Review #2

This year I purchased some baits from a good friend and lure maker Mike Nabulsi owner of Bassmagnet Lures. The bait I used was their new Drop Shot minnow in Perch and Smelt color. The first thing I noticed was the amount of detail that has gone into these baits to make them as realistic as possible. They are hand dipped, hand painted, hand detailed and then hand packaged. I think you can get the idea of the type of craftsmanship that has gone into these (and every other lure Mike and Mary produce). These baits measure 3.75 inches long and are hollow inside. They stand out perfectly on a drop shot rig and also work well on a small jig head. The baits are very durable and I was able to cast smallmouth as well as a few walleye on the baits under various different conditions. I even went so far as to inject some Gulp Alive scent into the hollow cavity to give the bait just a little extra something for when the bite was really tough. I am hoping to use these baits a little more this fall for walleye by fishing them on a lead jig just like live bait. I am pretty confident they will produce due to there extremly lifelike appearance. If you get a chance check out Bassmagnet's website and check out the drop shot minnow as well as all there other great products.

Drop Shot Minnow in Smelt color.

Tournament Recap #5 Aug.21

My next adventure took me to Chapeau Quebec for the Allumette Fire Dept. annual bass tournament held on the Ottawa River. This tournament is one of the better payouts in our area with a $3000 first prize which usually brings out a good crowd.  This year's extremely low water levels made this stretch of water very dangerous to run as well as very difficult to fish. Normal fishing areas were left high and dry by river levels that were 5-6 feet below normal. I fished this day with my Brother in-law Marc Schofield out of his boat a 20x Triton with a 225 HO Etec. This stretch of river is very narrow and twisty which can make for some awful interesting navigation and Marc's boat it pretty fast so we used it to try and out run the other competitors. We were in the first group and Marc got us out front so we had no other boats to worry about and we got to our first spot with no troubles. We spent a couple of hours fishing familiar water with nothing to show for it. We then went to an area Marc had found in pre-fish that was holding some good smallmouth. We pulled in and within 5 casts we had a school of smallmouth busting on a topwater but we missed 2 of them. Then as fast as they started they shut right down. We couldn't manage to find the school again and then the skies opened up with a torrential down pour just to rub salt into our wounds. We decided to go back to a spot that has always been productive for us and spend the rest of the day there hoping the fish would move in. When all was said and done we managed to scrape together a small limit and finished way down the board. While hanging around the weigh-in we saw a site I never hope to see again, a fellow angler with his 150hp motor sheared off after hitting a floating log in the middle of the channel. Luckily no one was hurt but I would guess the boat and motor would be a complete write off. There were many other boats at the weigh-in with missing lower units, missing skegs, and smashed props due to the amount of logs that had been exposed due to the low water. All in all it was an OK day but we did learn that for next year we will need to learn some new areas on that stretch in order to find some good largemouth areas as that it what seems to take to do well in this tournament.

Tournament Recap #4 August 14th

My next tournament this season took me to Golden Lake Ontario. I fished this tournament with my good friend and normal tourney partner Jeff Wilkins. Jeff and myself have been a team the last 2 seasons but this year we decided not to join a club due to my new commitments at home. We had planned on fishing this tournament since early spring when we were informed that the Petawawa Bassmasters would be running an open tournament there. We have had good success on this lake in the past and we had high expectations going in. The day started slow but we did have 2 good keepers at noon hour but we were starting to scramble. We moved to an area where we had marked some fish earlier in the day and worked the area over very slow. Jeff hooked into a solid fish that he fought to the boat, the fish made a couple of hard runs and we got a good look at it and knew it was a good one. The fish made one last run and suddenly broke Jeff off. This is when our day took a turn for the worse.... Jeff was disappointed but I was confident there were more fish in the area and told him not to worry. We boated another keeper soon after and then Jeff hooked another one. This fish started to jump way out from the boat and it was so big it could hardly clear the water. Jeff played the fish very carefully and it made another jump right near the boat and spit the hook. By this time Jeff is very upset and it is nearing 2 o'clock. We move to another spot and boat 2 keepers to give us a small limit before moving back to the previous spot hoping to make up for the 2 lost fish. At 3:30 Jeff sets the hook and it barely moved, he set again and the biggest smallmouth I have seen in years jumps clean out of the water. This time I do everything I can to make it easy for him to land this fish. I pull the boat away from the weeds, I get the net ready, I pull the trolling motor up so it can't get wrapped up,  can you see where this is going???? Next thing this toad jumps right at the boat and spits Jeff's tube right at him. After a few choice words we decide that today just wasn't our day and we head for the launch . We ended the day with 11.47 good for 6th place out of 23 teams. We were a little over 5 lbs out of first which we would have easily had if not for our misfortunes but that's the way fishing is sometimes. It was nice to get back in the boat my with my tourney partner again and we're still friends even after all the lost fish......LOL

Tournament Recap #3 July 31st

So after my great FLW experience I came home to fish some small local tournaments. The next one on my season was the Deep River Outfitters open tournament on the Ottawa River in Deep River. This is one of the premiere events in our area now with a limited field of 50 boats and a big payout  but it is also a great family even due to the fact that children can also fish the event. It is sponsored by Shimano and G-Loomis along with Deep River Outfitters, Molson, and many other companies and businesses that donate some great prizes to the prize table. Each year Big Jim is our M.C. and he loves to see all the kids have a good time along with cracking jokes with all the adults he has gotten to know over the years. This years event had 21 children who all received new rod and reel combo's from Big Jim as well as a great tackle pack from various other sponsors. I fish this event with my Dad and this year we actually got out for a bit of a pre-fish. We located some fish on some sharp drop offs as well as on some wood in a small bay off the main river but we couldn't locate any good size. On tournament day we had much the same luck and we finished with a disappointing 26th place with 9.41 lbs. This tournament has been my achillies heel for years now due to me being to confident I can always find fish on my home stretch. Next year I have decided that I am going to spend at least a couple of days pre-fishing as well as commit to finding new water. I would really like to do well in this event in front of my main sponsors just to help build my confidence. Big Jim will be back again next year and there are already 27 paid entries so this will be a sellout again next year and I'm sure it will be even better than this year.

Tournament Recap #2 July 15-17

My second tournament of the year took me to an FLW event on Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh New York. I was invited to this event by a friend and fellow tournament angler Charles Sim. This was my first real big event I had ever fished and I spent alot of time prepping for the event by reading about previous tournies and going over maps for weeks before. I spent one day pre-fishing by myself while waiting for Charles to arrive and I got onto to decent fish mid way through the day. Even though I was fishing the event as a co-angler I felt I needed to have a good grasp of how the fish were relating to structure and what baits and techniques were effective. I met up with Charles on the Sunday night before the event and we got a game plan together for the rest of the week. We spent Monday to Wednesday fishing various areas of the lake mostly in the north and central sections and had some decent fish everyday caught mostly on Jerkbaits, Senkos, and Tubes. I felt good about what I had learned about the lake and had a ton of confidence heading into the first day of the event. On day one I was paired with a great angler by the name of Mike Wolfenden from Warwick Rhode Island. The day was flat calm and very hot with temps in the 80's at the 6am blastoff. Mike ran north from Plattsburgh to an area I had pre-fished with Charles earlier in the week so I felt good about knowing the area. I managed two good fish in the first hour with one of them being over 4lbs. We ran to another area at about 8 am. and I managed to finish my limit of quality fish quickly and I knew I had a good bag. I had slightly over 16 lbs. but Mike only had 2 small keepers so he decided to run approx. 40 miles to an area he had alot of confidence in. From that point on I only managed to upgrade one fish but I knew I would be in good shape come weigh-in. Mike in the mean time put on a clinic using a dropshotted 4 inch senko and he upgraded to a good bag of around 18lbs. We went  to the weigh-in for 2:30 and the FLW puts on one the best run weigh-ins I have ever seen. They put 276 anglers through in just over 2 hours and I ended the day with 16lbs 3 ozs. good enough for 10th place on the co-angler side after day one. All my fish came on 2 baits that day one being a custom poured Bassmagnet Lures tube and the other being a black with blue flake senko. They were fished on Shimano Crucial rods matched with Shimano Symetre reels spooled with 20lb Spectrex braid and a 10 lb P-Line floro leader.  Mike ended with 18 lbs 9ozs to put him in 18th place on the Angler side and Charles had a tough day but still managed 15lbs 6ozs. Day 2 saw the weather change for the worse with high winds, clouds and thunderstorms most of the day. I was paired with Angler Dan Welch from West Virginia and he was in 26th after day one but was on good fish in the north end of the lake. At blast-off the wind was howling and the lake had 5 foot rollers at 6am and Dan decided not to run north for safety reasons. We took shelter behind an island and I managed 2 small keepers on a Lucky Craft jerkbait but hadn't been able to get anything going before noon. Then Dan moved to an area not far from the launch and caught 2 quick fish on a topwater so I tied on a Pop'N'Image to see if I could get a few. That is when my whole day turned around. In 3 casts I caught 3 smallmouth that weighed over 10 lbs between them and I knew then I had a decent limit. Then as fast as that bite started it died. Dan nor myself could manage anymore on the topwater so I started deadsticking a Senko and managed to upgrade one of my small keepers from earlier. I didn't weigh any of my fish that day so I wasn't sure what I had but I knew I was in pretty good shape. We headed to the weigh-in for 2:30 and I was really excited. I took my fish on stage and the announcer did a little interview with me before weighing my fish which made me anxious and nervous at the same time. When they hit the weigh-in button it read 15 lbs even to put me in 4th place and in line to make the top 10 cut for day 3. All my baits were used with Braided P-line Spectrex line with a P-Line floro leader just like the previous day. I fished them on my Crucial rods with a Symetre and a Stradic MG reel.  At the end of the day 2 weigh-in I had to wait until the very end to find out if I made the cut and I was ecstatic when they called me up in 4th place for the tourney.My day 2 partner Dan only weighed 8 lbs which knocked him way down the standings but even after that he was nice enough to go pick up my truck and bring it back to the weigh-in area because I had to stay for a meeting to discuss the next day's procedures and to get all my FLW sponsor clothing which you have to wear on the final day. Dan was a great partner for the day and a great person that I hope to have the chance to fish with again. I found out I would be paired with Professional Angler Dave Wolak for day 3. Charles had already packed up and was on his way home after finishing 49th so I had to try and find a hotel because we had already checked out not really thinking either of us was going to make the cut. I find a room back at the hotel we spent all week at and I started prepping gear.Dave mentioned we were going to fish smallies for a while and then largies for the rest of the day. I rigged up 6 rods and tried to get some sleep but I was too wound up. After about 3 hours sleep I was on my way to the Day 3 blast-off for our 5:30 am start time. It was still blowing but Dave was running a Ranger Z521 with a new Yamaha 250hp SHO that made the 4 foot rollers seem like ripples and we got to our first spot in no time. We stopped to fish smallmouth but the current wasn't moving the right way and they just weren't there. We moved a short distance to fish largemouth and that's when Dave started putting on the clinic.We were fishing a weed flat in 8-10 fow that was a mix of milfoil and hydrilla. I'm not real comfortable fishing that kind of cover but I tried my hardest and managed a OK limit but I knew it wasn't going to be enough. Dave caught a pile of fish and had a good limit but he wasn't confident he had enough to win. We headed in for the weigh-in and we were greeted by a huge crowd that had me pretty nervous to get up in front of. They weighed us in by Day 2 order of finish from 10th to first so that meant I was 6th to weigh. I got up when it was my turn and I was told I needed 13 and change to take over 1st but I knew I didn't have it. I weighed 10lbs 10 ozs. which kept me in 4th place overall. I was given about a 2 minute interview on stage that allowed me to talk about my tournament, my sponsors and say hello to anyone at home who may have been watching on-line. I found out once I got home that my parents, sister, girlfriend and her parents were all watching it live and said I did pretty good at my first interview. Dave weighed 15+lbs but he couldn't manage to move up either and finished 4th also. It was an amazing experience to fish with someone who does it for a living. There is not one single wasted minute in there day and one thing that surprised me was how simple they keep there tackle and lure selection. Once they are confident in something they really believe they can catch fish with it no matter when or where they are fishing. I learned more in 8 hours fishing with Dave than I had learned in the last 5 years of tournament fishing and it will help me in the future. I then had a 6 hour drive home to recap my tournament and my experience and I realized I did as good as I could. I didn't lose any fish that cost me anything, I fished with some of the best anglers in the United States and held my own and I made some great new friends along the way. I was2 lbs away from winning $10000 but I knew I had done the best I could. I can't say enough about how supportive Charles was through the whole pre-fish and tournament and it was a joy to get to spend a week fishing with one of the best fisherman in Canada. If anyone has a chance to fish an FLW event as a co-angler jump at it. They put on an amazing show that is very well run and they take care of all the anglers like they are family. I am looking forward to doing some more events in the future and hopefully Charles will still share a room and a pre-fish with me as long as I promise to stay away from the chinese buffet. That's a story I'll save for another day!!!!

Tournament Recap #1 June 26th

As I stated earlier I fished less this year than in previous years but I was able to make the best of the time I had on the water. The first tournament was an open tournament hosted by the Petawawa Bassmasters out of Jubilee Lodge in Petawawa on the Ottawa River.  I fished this event with my brother in-law Marc Schofield who is also an avid tournament angler. The event attendance was down slightly over previous years but the weather was great and 19 teams battled it out. This year saw warmer than normal water temperatures and extremely low levels which hampered some teams and made some areas impossible to access. We went to a few of our normal areas but the bite was extremely tough. We did manage lots of fish but we just couldn't get the bigger bites we needed. We finished the day in 6th place with 12.18 lbs. Even though this is our home stretch of water it has never been real good to us during this event. Winning weight for the day was 14.46 lbs caught by the father and son team of Chris and Andy Voldock. It was nice to get the first tourney of the year out of the way and get back into the swing of things. Most of our fish came on Senkos and tubes in greens and black colors. The tubes we used were some custom made Bassmagnet Lures and the senkos were some of my handpours as well as Yamamoto's and Wave Worm tiki sticks. All our fish were caught on an assortment of Shimano spinning reels rigged with Shimano rods.

Product Review #1

In this review I am going to talk about Shimano's new spinning reel the Stradic CI4. This reel is for the serious finesse fisherman who is looking for the ultimate dropshot reel. This reel is made from a special reinforced carbon material which makes it extremely light as well as very strong. I used the 2500 series this year for a dropshot reel as well as for a Senko setup. I can't say enough about how light this reel is. You can fish all day with one and there is absolutely no fatigue, due to its light weight. The drag is super smooth and the reel contains 7 bearings which makes it very smooth but also powerful enough to help you land the biggest smallies you can find. I paired this reel with a 7' 2" Shimano Crucial Dropshot Rod which allowed for long casts as well as a very soft tip to really feel the slightest tap when dropshotting. The Propulsion line management system helps eliminate tangles and allows for long smooth casts no matter which line you choose. If you are in the market for a super light, extremely durable finesse spinning reel make sure to check out the new Stradic CI4.

A big thank you !!!

Before I get into my tournament reports I would like to take the time to thank a few fine folks who have helped me out over the years with some great support in the form of product, service ,monetary and moral support. I am extremely lucky to be affiliated with Shimano Canada and the great lineup of fishing products. This year was fortunate to add their new Stradic CI4 spinning reel to my arsenal, as well as a couple more Curado E7 and E5's as well as some Crucial and Compre rods. I have been fishing with Shimano products now for over 10 years and was lucky enough to join there Field Staff 6 years ago. There products are by far one of the most reliable on the market and that is very important when using a product in a tournament setting. I will post some reviews on some of the fine Shimano products I have used this season in the review area once I have it set-up. Another big supporter of mine has been Terry and Karen Mitchell owners of Deep River Outfitters in Deep River Ontario. They have an amazing outdoors store filled to the ceiling with everything a hinter or fisherman could ever need. They carry a full line of Guns, Bows, fishing gear and outdoor clothing from names like Rocky, Shimano, Strike King, Rapala, Remington, Hoyt and many more. One of my most important sponsors has been Hunter's Bay Marine in Callander Ontario. Gord, Colin and the rest of the folks run one of the best marina's anywhere in the province. They have been keeping me and my Triton Boat on the water and in top notch condition for 4 years now and there service and attention to detail never fails to amaze me. They are also a full line Legend dealer as well as a full service marina and boat storage facility.I have a few other supporters who have supplied me with some of the finest fishing tackle I could ever want along with some other products that help keep me on the water and able to focus I what is needed to compete. I will list them as well as there products in the review section.

Welcome Aboard

Hi everyone and welcome to my fishing blog. I have decided to start this page to allow friends and family a chance to follow my season on the water. I started fishing Bass tournaments in 2004 and I have enjoyed every minute of it. This season I decided to fish open tournaments rather than join a club or circuit. In past seasons I have been a member of Petawawa Bassmasters as well as Valley Bass but this year I had a new addition to our family which has taken up more of my time. My girlfriend and I had a beautiful baby girl named Ella in February so I decided it would be better to focus on Open events and fish a little less in order to focus on more important things at home. My tournament season began at the end of June and took me to a few old areas and tournies as well as a new event for me in the form of an FLW American Fishing Series event on Lake Champlain in New York. I the coming weeks I will publish a month by month recap of my season as well as reviews of products I used over the year from both sponsors and retail items. Until then keep your lure wet and get ready to Get the Net!!! Marty