June 27th 28th Mattawa Nosbonsing
Mattawa Bass put on a show this past weekend as anglers had no problem finding fish up the
Mattawa river or in the Ottawa. The weather was great and you only had to go a few hundred yards
to find fish. The town of Mattawa also made sure every angler got a prize, and all the 25 teams
that came were shown the great hospitality you get when you come to town. Brent Belanger and the
staff at the water front were great, and had everything set up for us when we got back at the end
of the day. LoriAnn and Shelly collected the entree fees, did the stats and pay outs, while Darren
entertained everybody with tall tales from their new bait shop.
Another thing about Mattawa is that it's easy to fish and half the teams fishing this weekend were
fishing out of small aluminum boats. Husband and wife teams, father and son teams, older, and younger teams
all had a great time and caught lots of fish. Most people don't realize that you do not have to have a
big fancy Bass boat to win these events, and the team of Brad Sheffield and Ben Langlois proved that this
weekend. The team fished within a mile of Mattawa and came in with 17.04lbs to take 1st place, fishing
out of a 14ft flat bottom aluminum boat with a 9.9 Mercury.
The local team that finished 2nd, is a team that will give you all the tips you need to
do well on this river system if you listen closely, but dont tell them I said that. Brent & Darren
Belanger came in with 16.42lbs which they had by 10am, they said.

What a lot of people don't think about is how dangerous a husband and wife team can be, and
if a woman puts her mind to it, look out boys. That is exactly what the husband and wife team
of Carole and Calven Neill did, as the team came in with 14.46lbs and Carole caught the big Bass
of the day weighing 4.10lbs.


Sunday morning sees a new Lake, that has differant challenges for anglers which will make
the anglers better as the years go on. Weeds, rocks, points, humps, Lake Nosbosing has it all,
Local anglers from the area have an advantage over new anglers to the area this time because
the season just opened, but that just pushes anglers harder to win, and the race was close.
The local team of Ray Willick and Don MacDonald showed that they knew the Lake pretty well
coming in with 13.46lbs to take first place.

The next team up for the challenge was the father and son team of Howard & Dan Gifford
who had never fished the lake before and came in with 13.24lbs almost enough to do the job
but ended up in 2nd place.

I never got a chance to talk to the 3rd place team of John Parkinson and Chris Megginson
to find out if they had fished the Lake before, but they came in with a good weight of 12.80
so all in all the anglers did good for anglers who had no chance to pre fish.

Just so you don't forget the lady anglers, Sue Maurer also took the big fish of the day,Sunday
with a 4.34lb Largemouth Bass. Sue and Des Connelly have been getting better and
better every year, and you can be sure the lady anglers in this Series are serious about winning.

This week we should have all the pictures and stats up plus the Angler of the Year standings.
Next Tournaments will be on Bay Lake in Latchford and Lake Temiskaming in New Liskeard, July 18/19th.
Have fun Stay Safe and see you there
Dave LaFontaine