Columns
August 13, 2008 07:41 PM
Wil Wegman
I was fortunate enough to be one of several other adult boaters who volunteered to chauffer around two Ontario Junior Bassmasters as they competed in their final qualifying tournament of the season on Bass Lake just outside of Orillia.
All anglers competing were in the 11 to 14-year-old category or the 15 to 18-year-old group. Each boat had one of each. The most frustrating part for all the adults was definitely not that they couldn’t fish themselves, but that they could not help or assist the young anglers in any way whatsoever. We couldn’t offer advice as to location, lure choice or anything else that would help them catch fish.
“These tournaments are a true test of the skill level of each angler”, said Gerry Heels, Ontario BASS Federation Nation Youth director responsible for the Junior Bassmaster Program.
We did have one mentoring tournament early in the season where the adult boat drivers were able to fish and help the young anglers.
However, since then, the Junior Bassmasters fish tournaments without any assistance and use what they learned at that first event during competition.
Of course, many also fish with their families and combine that with months of prep work at regular meetings and activities throughout the year in order to get to where they are today.
As has been the case so far this season, another front had just moved through and fishing was much tougher than is normally the case for Bass Lake. Still, most of the eager young anglers caught fish including the eventual winners Jake Sasnowski, 16, in the senior division from Bowmanville and Mark Morrison of Utopia in the junior division, 12.
They both go on to Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire to compete in the Eastern Divisional Championship Tournament Sept. 20 and 21.
If they are in the top two, they will advance to the Junior World Championships in Kansas City Nov. 8 and 9.
Jr. Bassmaster World Pairs Youth
In 2007, two Ontario Juniors qualified for the Junior Bassmaster World Championship Pairs Youth: Michael Evers of Innisfil (11 to 14) and Ryan Rogers of Bowmanville (15 to 18).
At press time they had just arrived in New York to fish the biggest tournament of their young lives.
The venue for this event coincides with the 2008 Bassmaster Elite Series season finale on Oneida Lake near Syracuse.
To add to the excitement of this professional tournament, the Junior Bassmaster World Championship would follow, at Onondaga Lake out of Liverpool, N.Y.
Kids from two divisions of junior anglers were paired with Elite Series pros at the Bassmaster Elite Series weigh-in stage at Oneida Shores County Park in Syracuse.
The teams then spent a day having fun on the water and practicing before the big event.
Ninety-three junior anglers competed in the World Championship in 11 to 14 and 15 to 18 age groups.
Along with the amazing experience of being able to fish with a professional, the junior anglers competed for a piece of a scholarship prize pool totalling $23,000.
Before the event started Heels told us that he thinks our Canadian representatives stand a good shot at doing well in N.Y. “Ryan has been in the program for two years and is very talented with tubes, flippin jigs and Senko type baits but is an all-round good fisherman. He’s more of a largemouth bass fisherman as he lives near Lake Scugog and fishes it a lot but and has also been working hard on his Smallmouth techniques and is doing well on smallmouth now.
This is Michael’s second year as a Junior and when he qualified last year he was very new to the sport but worked extremely hard to qualify. He loves to throw Senko’s too and this year has also done well on drop shot. He concentrates really well on his fishing techniques and has become an avid bass angler who asks a lot of questions and is a very good listener.” Both of these young men will do the Junior Bassmaster program and Canada proud concluded Heels.
Stay tuned to next week’s Focus on Fishing Column to see how our two Canadian Junior Bassmasters made out.