Mitch Calvert
Wayne and Pat Howard might want to schedule more time off together from their duties at Ross’ Camp in Emo for future fishing tournaments.
The married couple of 24 years rarely spend time away from the camp together during the busy summer season, but did so this past weekend and won the ninth-annual “Castin’ for Cash” at Lake Despair Lodge.
Talk about a wise decision.
“This is the only thing we get time off together for, so it’s a little bit special that way,” Pat said. “This is probably the only four days last year and this year [at this tournament] that I’ve fished in the last 15 years, but it’s a great tournament and a lot of fun.”
The pair weighed in the biggest catch on a windy Day 2 (12.72 pounds) and held on to win with a two-day weight of 26.32 pounds—sneaking ahead of Day 1 leaders Bryan Gustafson and Brian White of Fort Frances, who finished fractions of a pound back with a two-day haul of 26.18 pounds.
Gustafson caught a 3.51-pound lunker early on Saturday, and most in attendance felt their final weigh-in would be more than enough to give the young pair the win over the Howards.
But the pair weighed in 11.71 pounds on Day 2—including a requested re-weigh to be sure—only to be clipped by the Emo couple. They earned a cheque for $2,500 for finishing second.
“I thought they had the weight for sure,” Wayne admitted. “We weren’t coming in here to win, we just wanted to go fishing and it’s something we can do together which we started doing last year [when they finished 21st].”
“After [Friday’s] five fish, we thought okay now we’ve got to get a couple [Saturday] so we can hold some up during the weigh-ins, and one just led to another,” Wayne insisted. “I didn’t think we were going to win. I thought some of those guys had more weight than it said they had.”
“It’s just nice to have a couple days off together and we weren’t even thinking about having the best catch,” Pat echoed.
The windy conditions on Day 2 resulted in lower weights across the board, but Wayne’s experience—including a 2005 win at this tournament alongside Jason Cain—paid off in spades.
“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,” Wayne noted. “We caught a fair number, but a lot of them were small, and we lost one big one, but the big ones we caught were all late in the day from 2 o’clock to when we came in [at 4 p.m.].”
Wayne said they kept to the windy points, and had all of their success in shallow waters on Day 2—with most of their catch coming in those last couple hours on the water.
“We were able to cull three in that time, and that was obviously important,” Wayne added.
“He caught all the fish, and I was the net person,” Pat added with a laugh.
Tournament emcee Mark Allen dubbed the duo the “Honeymooners” during last year’s event because of the husband/wife connection, and the nickname carried into this year.
“We’ve been married for 24 years so I don’t know where the honeymoon thing came from, but it stuck,” Pat said with a laugh.
“He’s just being Mark,” Wayne added. “He’s good at what he does, one of the best.”
Rounding out a tightly-contested top three were last year’s champions Jeff Gustafson and August Collinson (25.97 pounds). The Kenora duo again benefited from a big catch from Collinson late on Saturday much like a year ago—but couldn’t add to their haul after she reeled in the 3.33-pound lunker just before noon.
Greg Swire and Jay Kelly finished fourth (24.87) while Bob Steele and Darcy Robson completed the top five (24.40).
Darrin Ward and Karl Wolfe (24.13) took sixth, while the father/son pairing of Corey and Chase Curtis took home the top honours for a team with an angler under 15, finishing sixth overall with 23.85 pounds of bass.
Tyson Romyn and Matt Redford (23.69), Chris Bell and Mel Giesbrecht (23.60), Davis Viehbeck and Michael Deschamps (23.36), and Mark Wilson and Glen Ward (23.25) rounded out the top 10.
The big fish on Day 1 went to Collinson and Gustafson (3.43) while Brent Kellar and Keith McKinnon had the biggest of the tournament on Saturday at 3.58 pounds.
Co-owner at Lake Despair Lodge, Nellie Godin, said the father/son, husband/wife teams and young teams up on the leaderboard are what this tournament is all about.
“We really like to see the youth get into it, whether it’s male or female,” Godin enthused. “Everyone in the field got jam from Cloverleaf Grocery, and little Chase Curtis there was chosen to get blueberry jam because strawberry was already given out, and he was upset because strawberry is his favourite.
“He was like, ‘But Dad, I only like strawberry,’ so we got him a jar of strawberry to give him [Saturday],” Godin laughed. “But I mean that’s what makes it all fun—it’s a true family event.”
Godin said as long as the support continues, her and Bill will continue to host the event.
“We’re still enjoying it and the people are still supporting it, so as long as that’s happening, we’ll keep on hosting it,” Godin insisted.
“We know times are tough so we didn’t even go out asking for sponsorship, but local businesses contacted us and did it, which is so great.
“Everybody enjoys coming, and whatever they get, they’re happy with. Nobody complains and that makes it a lot of fun,” Godin added.
Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the event, and the Godins expect to have a few things up their sleeves for the tournament—but so far are keeping those details private.
“We have talked about different things, but we want to keep things a little secret right now,” Godin said.
