‘Castin’ for Cash’ sees biggest weights ever

They came, they saw, they caught some fish.
The fourth-annual “Castin’ for Cash” bass tournament at Lake Despair on Saturday and Sunday boasted the biggest weights it has seen to date—just as the organizer and owner of Lake Despair Lodge had predicted.
“I’m very pleased with the weights for Day One, it’s the highest we’ve had here yet,” said Bill Godin. “I think before the highest was 13-something after day one.”
The team that won the tournament was Don Copenace and Greg Swire (who guides for the Godins on Lake Despair).
“Well, I taught him everything I know,” laughed Godin.
Swire and Copenace—first-time partners—took a humble approach to winning, saying they went out to do their best and just lucked out on the spots.
“We stumbled on some fish and they happened to be nice ones,” said Copenace.
Swire added the fish weren’t where they were when they were pre-fishing, but as soon as they got on them, they were there.
“It was my partner—he scares everything away,” Swire joked.
The duo caught all of their fish Saturday between 11 a.m. and noon, and then came back in for the rest of the day. They were confident that they couldn’t catch any more than the 14.08 pounds they already had.
“We didn’t want to go and ruin our spots, that’s all,” said Swire.
And they didn’t. The next day they were back at it again, bringing in 12.75 pounds for a two-day total of 26.83—easily enough to capture the $5,000 first prize.
The pair also earned a berth in the 2005 Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship.
“We’re feeling pretty good right now, the pressure is off,” said Copenace. “This morning at about 10 o’clock, we had one fish, and at 11 o’clock we had one fish, and around noon we started getting on to them.
“And it just took off from there.”
“I’m very happy,” agreed Swire. “Lots of pressure coming in, though. We kept wondering, ‘Do we have 12 pounds, do we have 12 pounds?’ Oh, it was scary.”
Swire’s two daughters were on stage to congratulate him, beaming at their dad and waving at mom as Swire and Copenace received their awards.
“I’m very proud of him, and I guess I should let him go fishing more often!” Swire’s wife, Crystal, laughed.
“My daughters are very proud of their dad,” she added. “They [Swire and Copenace] did a very good job and they worked hard. I’m very glad that they were successful.”
Copenace also made sure to thank his wife on stage for letting him go fishing—to the cheers of many of the women in the crowd.
The champs also pocketed another $500 as the team with a Mercury motor that brought in the biggest fish on Day One (3.44 pounds).
Triton also sponsored a Big Fish award to the tune of $500 that went to Randy Kirk and Dave Evans, who brought in a 2.82-pound fish from their Triton-powered boat on Day Two.
The runners-up, Paul Jewiss and Mike Graham, speaking like true anglers, said they lost a couple of big fish over the weekend that might have put them into first place.
Still, they were very pleased with their second-place showing—and $2,500 payout.
“Those guys [Swire and Copenace] had a nice bag of fish. They did really well—it’s nice to see them win,” said Jewiss.
Though both Graham and Jewiss have competed in the tournament in past years, this wass the first year that they’ve been partners—and the highest that either of them have placed.
Jewiss’ previous partner retired, and he and Graham had discussed fishing together in the past. With a start like this, they plan to be around together in other tournaments.
“Mike’s great,” said Jewiss. “I told him, “I’ll show you the fish if you can catch ’em. And he did.”
Jewiss added they both put fish in the live-well—Graham just seemed to have certain techniques that work well.
“So far, so good,” Graham said of the new partnership. “He’s a good fisherman. He knows the water a lot better than I do. So he shows me the fish.
“Actually, we discovered yesterday that they’re still spawning,” he added. “We happened to get in close to shore to get a snag and we saw the bed.”
The pair brought in 13.56 pounds on Day One and another 12.22 on Day Two for a total weight to 25.78—about a pound shy of the winners.
“We had a good day, we had fun, that’s the main thing, said Jewiss, winking. “We just laughed. We said, “Well, we did what we could, it’s over, and we’ll see how we do.
“Bill and Nellie do an excellent job here all the time,” Jewiss added. “I like this tournament—it’s close, it’s well-organized. I can’t say enough about it.”
Third-place winners Ralph Galusha and Pat Steele used mostly topwaters and flukes to bring in their 24.80 pounds over the two-day tournament to win $1,500. But they said the fish were biting on everything.
“We’ve been fishing for—oh, it seems like forever,” said Galusha. “But we love fishing this tournament, it’s really good. There’s not as much pressure on you as Fort Frances [Canadian Bass Championship].
“Plus I know Billy. I guide for him all the time.”
The pair certainly caused a commotion each time they came on stage as both are blessed—or cursed—with a number of unsavory nicknames, which tournament emcee Lionel Roberts was always more than happy to point out.
But the pair put the joking aside on the water, vaulting from eighth-place after Saturday to third place by bringing in 12.98 pounds on Sunday—the biggest catch of the day.
Emo resident Wayne Howard and Fort Frances partner, Jason Cain, in their third year fishing the “Castin’ for Cash,” took fourth place (worth $600) with a 23.96-pound total
“Lot of fun out there. It’s good fishing and we caught a lot of fish,” said Howard. “We just didn’t get ’em big enough, that’s all.”
Maybe not big enough to win the tournament, but fourth place out of the 55 times competing is nothing to shrug at.
Both Howard and Cain guide on the lake for Ross’s Camp, making them the third and fourth guides to crack the top 10.
Following suit, Grant Swire, Greg’s brother, also guides on the lake, which helped lead him and father-in-law Rod Woodgate to an eighth-place finish with 21.14 pounds ($400).
“It was excellent on Saturday, but Sunday was really tough,” said Swire. “It was a struggle all morning. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
“And this afternoon [Sunday] at about 3 o’clock we had one fish in the boat, and then things picked up there for about 20 minutes and they started biting again—finally—and it paid off for us to fish our holes.
“It was just a great tournament. It’s probably the best tournament around the area,” he added.
Woodgate has fished with his son-in-law for all four of the Lake Despair tournaments, with this being the first time they’ve placed in the top 10.
Dave Williams and Cuffy Kehle of Atikokan, new to the tournament this year, took seventh place with 21.36 pounds (worth $400), as well as the “big fish” award for Day One (3.64 pounds) and the bass pot.
“Well, we had a great time, it was really well-run,” said Williams. “I’d like to thank Bill and Nell for putting this on. They made us feel very welcome and were very helpful.
“When we went out to the lake [pre-fishing], they showed us the way around so we wouldn’t hit any rocks, although I hit two today,” he added.
Williams said they plan to be back next year—and hope to be able to pre-fish a little more for next time.
The “big fish” award for Day Two (3.42 pounds) went to ninth-place finishers Mike Baranowski of Nestor Falls and Davis Viehbeck from Thunder Bay. Their total was 20.54 pounds.
“Patience and persistence—that’s basically what it was,” said Viehbeck. “It was pretty tough fishing, you just had to stick to your game plan.”
Viehbeck said he also noticed the fish were still spawning that weekend.
“There weren’t many, but there were fish on beds,” he said. “I imagine there will be guys seeing the same thing in Fort Frances [Canadian Bass Championship].”
The other top 10 finishers (winning $400) were Mel Giesbrecht and Chris Bell of Sioux Narrows in fifth place (23.30 pounds), Jason Caul of Devlin and Dallas Mosbeck of Emo in sixth (22.06), and Devlin’s Glen and Dennis “Radar” Smith in 10th (20.34).
Nellie Godin was glad to see everything went off without a hitch and that the weather held out.
“It was great. Everybody was safe, nothing happened where anybody got hurt or anything, and everyone seemed to have fun,” she remarked.
“I’d like to see a few more men/women teams for next year because we’re going to try for some bigger, better prizes for them.
“I think its a great way to get back together, you know. Put the spark back in,” she added.
The award for the top male/female team went to Frank and Cheryl Curtis, who brought in 13.84 pounds over the weekend.
Most improved was the team of Robin Anderson and Jeff Kreger, who came in empty-handed on Saturday but managed to haul in 12.41 pounds on Sunday.
The “hidden weight” for the tournament was 9.11 pounds, which was won by Doug and Bill Witherspoon, who had the closest weight (without going over) at 9.00 pounds.
And the tournament’s youngest angler, 10-year-old Nick Potter, won the award for lowest weight for the one 1.78-pound bass that he and mom, Sherri, brought in over the weekend.