A new set of champs were named in the Lake Despair “Castin’ For Cash” live release bass tournament this weekend, as Pat Cross and Keith Cates found fish yesterday— while most others struggled— and vaulted 14 spots for the win.
For the duo, it was hard to believe they’d better their Day One ranking of 14 spot to take the top prize, a cool $5,000.
But poor weather yesterday, including intense lightning and heavy rain at times, made for bashful bass and fewer fish.
“I can’t hardly believe it,” said Keith Cates of Emo.
The tournament, in its third year, is hosted by Lake Despair Lodge and owners Bill and Nell Godin.
They were impressed with the spectator turnout as nearly 400 turned out to watch the final weigh-ins.
Cross and Cates have fished the Lake Despair tournament before, but hadn’t done this well. They chalked up their success to preparation.
“Our pre-fishing paid off,” said Cates. “We never knew the lake last year.”^He explained that this year they spent 6-8 days in the last three weeks pre-fishing compared to the two evenings and one half day last year.
“We worked one spot really hard and it paid off,” said Cross who resides in Fort Frances.
He explained it was a spot they’d pre-fished and knew there were big fish to be had.
On Day One, the two caught 9.48 pounds of bass, putting them in contention, but still had their work cut out for themselves for Day Two—the leaders on Day One, Randy Kirk and Dave Evans, had bagged 12.54 pounds.
The champs’ Day Two total was the largest on Sunday, weighing an impressive 11.70 pounds–for a 21.18 total. They even took home the $300 prize for big fish of the day, lamding a 3.30 pound fish.
On Day One, it was the team of Mike McCormick and Terry Dolk who hauled in the hawg of the day, and the tourney, with a 3.60 pounder.
The mystery prize, of lawn chairs and beer, was given to the father/ son team of Tim and Chris Mutz, who were skunked the first day and weighed a minuscule 1.06 pound, 12 inch bass for the low total of the weekend.
Second place in the tourney went to the team of Jason Caul and Dallas Mosbeck. They were the most consistent team of the weekend, bagging a total of 11.62 pounds on Day One and 9.26 pounds on Day Two. They took home a cheque for $2,000.
Third place went to last year’s champ of Mel Giesbrecht and his partner, Ed Colfer. They vaulted from eighth on Day One to third to earn $1,000.
Fourth place went to Kirk and Evans who couldn’t find the fish they’d tied into the day before.
They earned $500 for their efforts.
Fifth to tenth place teams received $300 meaning they got their entry fees back. Those teams were respectively: Dale LaBelle and Jody Shypit, Paul Jewiss and Dale Strachan, Gerry Elliott and Shelley Bruce-Allen, Wayne Howard and Jason Cain, Ted Heyens and Kalvin Caul, and Doug and Bill Witherspoon.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
