CBC winner right in the

You might say Jason Belisle got hooked on bass fishing this past weekend.
It was his first time doing it, and chances are good he won’t do it for a while, but he was definitely convinced of the sport’s appeal.
“(I like) the way the fish fight,” said the 28-year-old winner of CBC’s Fish Tales contest.
“But there are no bass lakes where I’m from.”
Belisle is from Manitouwadge, a community between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie, where he’s a large-machine operator for a logging company.
He has done some fishing–in fact, the fishing story that won the CBC contest took place on the ice–but it was mainly for trout and walleye.
As a contest winner, Belisle not only received an all-expenses-paid trip to the tourney, but a chance to fish in it with CBC outdoor correspondent Gord Ellis.
“The tournament’s great,” Ellis enthused. “The bottom line is the organization of the tournament–the weigh-in, the emcee. It runs like a top. It’s the best I’ve seen.”
Ellis has done some bass-fishing, but his main catch is walleye.
The pair came down for only a half-day of pre-fishing on Wednesday.
“It just wasn’t enough,” Ellis continued. “We found two or three fishing spots and beat them to death.”
But the pair didn’t do too badly for a team who’d never fished together and had one completely inexperienced bass fisherman: they came in 101st.
“We could have done better,” Belisle said. “But we had fun.”
The team fished “top water”, meaning they had the hook hanging close to the top of the water. Ellis has used the technique for trout and walleye, but bass were different.
“Bass are the funniest fish. Excellent fighters,” he said. “Fishing topwater was more exciting. I don’t know if it was the best way, but it was more fun.”
Both would like to come back– but unfortunately they didn’t qualify.
“If Gord will have me as a partner, I’ll come back anytime,” Jason said, smiling.