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