Mitch Calvert
The ninth-annual “Castin’ for Cash” fishing tournament at Lake Despair Lodge presented plenty of challenges for the 62 anglers who hit the waters on Friday and Saturday—but it was the married couple of Wayne and Pat Howard who prevailed with a two-day weight of 26.32 pounds.
Wayne, who won the title with Jason Cain in 2005, is certainly no stranger to Lake Despair, Footprint Lake, and Jackfish Lake—the three bodies of water anglers can fish in the tournament.
That experience proved beneficial during Saturday’s fishing, when heavy winds wreaked havoc on the entire field.
“When the wind is so strong it’s hard to feel anything, but I guess I do it so much I was able to get enough on [to win],” Wayne said after the final weigh-in.
“We were fishing shallow water, mostly,” Wayne continued. “We fished some open water stuff [Friday] and it was good, but today it wasn’t good at all.
“We caught a fair number, but a lot of them were small, and we lost one big one early,” Wayne said. “The big ones were all late in the day from 2 o’clock to when we came in [at 4 p.m.].”
That late flurry proved to be the difference, as the couple of 24 years barely survived a charge from the young Fort Frances duo of Bryan Gustafson and Brian White, who led after Day 1 with 14.47 pounds and finished with a two-day weight of 26.18 pounds—fractions behind the winners.
Rounding out the top three was last year’s champion pair of Jeff Gustafson and August Collinson. The Kenora team completed a trio of teams at the top that were all within a pound of one another, finishing with a haul of 25.97 pounds.
The Howards added to their $5,000 top prize with the top male/female award, while Emo’s Nathan Brigham and Brett Meyers were the winners of the hidden weight.
The top team with an angler under 15 was Chase and Corey Curtis, while the dubious honour of lowest weight total for 10 fish went to the father/son pair of Dylan and Grant Swire.
Gustafson and Collinson had Friday’s big fish at 3.43 pounds, while Brent Kellar and Keith McKinnon had the big fish of the tournament during Saturday’s action with a 3.58-pound lunker.
