It was a rainy start to the Bass Pro Shops Simcoe Open Tournament . The rain was expected to be heavy ,, and it was. As luck would have it we drew boat number 80 out of 80 boats which meant we started dead last. Luckily the wind was from the South East which made for smooth riding until you got a mile or so out from the South shore. We had a xx mile trip to our first spot and needless to say we were soaked by the time we got there. First cast I got a bite,,, a 4 1/2 lb smallie. Not bad for a start but an hour and a half later we hadnt got another bite. We made the decision to go to plan "B". We had a spot found in the tournament the week earlier so we travelled through the rain and the rollers to get to it. Mercifully by now the rain had let up. The day went by so quickly we almost didn.t realize we had to go if we were going to make it back on time. We ended up culling 3 5 1/2 pounders so we knew we were in contention. We estimated our catch around 27-28 lb. Yes that is with 5 fish. At the weighin we heard that 27.2 lb was the weight to beat. We were held to the end to make it more dramatic. One by one our fish were put into the bag greeted by ahhhs and ooohhhs. The weight was finally tallied at 28.34 lb! WOHHOOO!!! $10,000.00 First Place.

My arms are falling off and my face hurts (from smiling).
We would like to thank Andy for having faith in us, Herb Quan and the Aurora Bassmasters, Bass Pro Shops and all the competitors for a wonderful tournament. We would also like to thank Dave Mercer for his great sense of humour and his wonderful wit as MC. We would especially like to thank the awesome Simcoe smallmouth for cooperating with us and taking our offerings. Only 364 days until next years BPS Simcoe Open and I can't wait!

Howard..
aka Flatout