New record tournament bag in Canada!

[steverowbotham]

I'll start by saying, it wasnt me, but oh so d**n close.

Yesterday was the Jack Link's Simcoe Open on Lake Simcoe in Ontario.  It is a one day shootout tournament and among the most anticipated of the year.  I havent entered for a number of years but decided that I was going to do it this year.  I committed hard and for the last month, almost every day off work has been spent on the water following these fish as they transition to their fall feeding grounds.  The last two weeks were a grind.  The weather and water has been unseasonably warm and they fish have been scattered from 4 feet to 60 feet of water with no rhyme or reason to it.  It has made it extremely tough to pattern as they have not "set up" for the fall bite.
Going into the tournament, we had 3 spots that we were going to die on, all within a relatively close distance of each other.  We just had to get there.
The night before the tournament brought strong wind gusts and the lake was pretty blown up.  4 and 5 foot rollers put a beating on us, making the 27 mile run to our first spot.  The first fish in the boat was a 13 incher, not a good start for a tournament that regularly takes 27-30 pounds to win.
We grinded and grinded and came up with one 5+ and decided to move on to our next area.  We graphed a small shoal super quick on our way there and marked 1 loner fish, but decided to move on.
We got to spot #2 and made a couple passes to no avail.  Decided to make a bait change and voila, fish on.  We still had to grind, but we were getting bit almost every pass, and they were all decent fish including 1 over 6.  Eventually, these fish scattered and the bite died.
We had about 3 hours to weigh in, and decided to try for the loner fish on that little shoal, since it looked like a good one.  As soon as we dropped the trolling motor, the screen was lit up with smallies and we pulled another 4 quality fish off that shoal.  It was ticking rain the entire day, gusting and cold.  We bundled up for our long, wet, cold run back to weigh in and made it with  30 mins to spare, so lets fish by the ramp for a bit.  The launch is in Lake Couchiching, which is attached to Simcoe and known for plentiful, but smaller fish.  Somehow, we were actually able to make a quick upgrade in that spot.
Weigh in time comes and one of my best friends has the lead with a 30.86lbs bag of smallies, insane.  Up we go and drop 30.13 on the scale.  Bittersweet moment. We finally broke 30, but this year it wasnt enough.  It wasnt even good enough for 2nd as another team dropped 31.89lbs on the scale to break the previous record of 31.50 lbs.
Insane day and an incredible fishery, where over 30lbs of smallies isnt safe!

[corn-on-the-rob]

Great story, those fish are ridiculous.

 

Congrats, and go get 32lbs next year!

[12poundbass]

Unbelievable! 

[A-Jay]

That is 3 Super Sick Sacks ~ !

Congrats

A-Jay

 

 

[Will Wetline]

That's mind-boggling . . . wow . . . huh!

[Steveo-1969]

Unreal! I just saw the winning weight mentioned on another forum and thought it was a typo. And then here was your thread on BR.

[roadwarrior]

 

 

                                         INCREDIBLE!

 

                                                                           

[NHBull]

?

[TOXIC]

What a sack!!  Took over 30 to win a TX on St Clair as well.  

[flatcreek]

Y'all wore em slap out!

[Turkey sandwich]

Congrats on placing! A 30lb sack is just ridiculous! A 30lb sack and not winning just seems unreal. 

[steverowbotham]

1 hour ago, Turkey sandwich said:

Congrats on placing! A 30lb sack is just ridiculous! A 30lb sack and not winning just seems unreal. 

Tell me about it...

[nosdog2]

Well done!!  That is a true bag of footballs!

[Turkey sandwich]

https://www.bassmaster.com/news/massive-bag-smallmouth-sets-canadian-record

 

Official.