What better way to kick off the opening season for Bass than a tournament.  Mississippi Lake was the venue and Renegade the organizer.  My partner for the day was Nigel Touhey, co- holder of the Canadian record for heaviest one-day limit of Smallmouth Bass – 30.35lbs.

Nigel, Maestro and I blasted off second last at the trickle start, but no matter, we weren’t going far.  200 meters away was a stony point where Nigel was certain Smallmouth could be found, and with his first cast of a tube, he proved to be right.

We spent another 20 or so minutes working our way up to the tip of the point tossing tubes, and then switched to drop shot gear to cover the deeper water off the point.  This netted us another three Smallmouth and a Walleye for Nigel.

Following the point around into a bay it was time to toss some frogs.  Having rained off-and-on for the past four days, the water was slightly tinted so I tried out a Wallypogg Frog from Snag Proof with a yellow belly, and this turned out to be just the ticket.  In the next 15 minutes I had four Bass bursting up through the pads before losing my Wallypog to an over-hanging tree limb.  It was my first top water bite of the year and it took me a few minutes to get my heart rate back down so I could refocus on hook-setting, (i.e. not reacting to the sound of the Bass coming out of the water).

Nigel was working a Senko along the weed edges which was also producing, and by 8:30 we had our limit in the live well.  In just over an hour we had used four different techniques to catch five good-sized chunks and another half-dozen or so smaller Bass.

Our circuit along the shore next brought us to a series of docks.  Nigel began skipping his Senko under the docks, and I worked the weedlines with a white spinnerbait.  Both techniques proved to be effective allowing us to cull a couple Bass.  Disaster struck however, when one of our fellow competitors, who happens to live on the lake, and his partner moved up behind us and asked if we wouldn’t mind if they followed along.  Feeling pretty confident about our fish so far, we jokingly exchanged a few comments and then watched in horror as our competitor moved up to the only dock we had missed and pulled out a Largemouth that came in just under 5lbs.  Shaken but not out, we then turned into a bay that presented a solid field of pads.

Back out came the frog rod, only this time we couldn’t raise a fish.  Nigel was fairing pretty much the same with his Senko.  We tried a couple other promising bays with the same results.  Back we went to fishing docks.  This time I traded my spinnerbait for a Rapala DT Thug, which proved popular, but given that we weren’t fishing a multi-species event, I decided to try my hand at skipping Senkos under docks as well.  What we needed was a couple of those hogs like the one that was taken from under our noses.

By now the sun had burned through the morning fog and the water was flat without a breath of wind.  We worked docks and drop-offs for the rest of the morning, but weren’t able to produce any significant up-grades to our five Bass in the live well.  Judging by the amount of bass boats moving around on the lake by mid morning, you could tell others were also beginning the hunt for lunkers.  We had already taken Bass on tubes, drop-shot, frogs, Senkos, spinnerbaits and crankbaits, what else did we need to try?

Weigh-in was at 2:00 so we didn’t have a lot of time left.  We made another stop at the rocky point where I picked up another Smallmouth with the drop-shot, but still no kickers, which was how we ended our day.  We found out later from Nigel’s regular partner, Charles Sim, that he was also struggling with boating some hogs until, that is, he went to a Carolina rig with a 10” Senko in the last hour which proved to be the ticket.

Our standing for the day was pretty much in the middle of the pack.  Judging by the weights going up on the board, we weren’t the only ones struggling to boat some hogs.  Oh, and for the team that scooped the bruiser from under our noses, they won.

Renegade is no doubt the premier Bass fishing tournament series in eastern Ontario.  Having the opportunity to fish with one of their pros during the season-opener pro-am is a real treat, and a great crash-course in catching Bass under pressure.  A big thanks to Nigel for agreeing to partner with Maestro and myself for the day, and to the Renegade Pro-Am organizing team for the fantastic event.