Tournament Results
Howard Gifford Wins Mattawa Tournament Alone
July 16th
Everyone knows the Gifford boys are no strangers to the Mattawa Tournament, and if the fish they are chasing are there,
they stand a good chance of winning. But when you are fishing alone things get harder. You now have to find the fish, figure
out what to use, and net a fish that's fighting like a bull dog all by yourself. Lots of times you might lose a hooked
fish this way, and the Ottawa Bass have a tendency to go right back to the school they were in, and that can shut down
the whole school from biting, because of a scent they give off announcing danger.
On top of this add hot stable weather, and a water table going up and down 3 to 4 feet every day, do to the dam opening
and closing,and your day can be fun, but challenging. These are the kind of things that make Tournament fishing such a
great sport, and make every angler who fishes them better anglers all round. "Sure", I imagine Howard talked to himself
alot,and probably talked to the fish too, I would think, but whatever they talked about must have worked because Howard not
only caught the winning weight of 15.78lbs, he also caught the Big fish of the day weighing 4.46lbs.
Now the next team to come to the scales seem to have a thing for second place. These 2 bubbly bouncing boys just love to
fish and see other teams come to town to see what a great fishery Mattawa has. I have fished with Brent and Darren Belanger
for years now and can tell you they are not afraid to help out anybody on how to fish the Mattawa,or any other body of water
and are always cracking me up with thier antics, but winning on thier home water just seems to slip out of thier grasp each
year. Of coarse the boys just say they wanted to give the rest of us a chance, and next year it will be a different story.
The team would bring 11.68lbs to the scales for another 2cd place win and gain more information on how weather effects fish
on the Ottawa and Mattawa rivers.
Some times a team can sit in one spot all day and catch enough fish to win the Tournament, and other days your fish just
dont show up. Barry Bennet and Ken Loya Jr have used this tactic many times before with great sucsses, but today only
some of thier fish decided to show up , but it was enough to put the team in 3rd place with 11.82lbs. These are small
weights for Mattawa the team said, buts thats fishing and tomarrow is another day.
Rounding off the Top 6 teams are.
4th place Patrick and Eric Bazinet with 10.44lbs
5th place Chris Sheffeild and Sean Strang with 10.32lbs.
6th place Armond and Guy Michauville with 10.02lbs.
We would like to thank Shelly and Brent for all the great work they did running the Mattawa event for us.
Tomorrow off to Hunters Bay Lake Nipissing
Stay Safe Have Fun.
Dave LaFontaine
© 2007 -2011 Temiskaming Smallmouth Bass Tournament Series
