Joey Payeur
Byron Sharp is making this competitive fishing thing look easy.
The 24-year-old from Stratton teamed up with cousin, Jon O’Connor, of Winnipeg to win the 2015 Kenora Bass International this past weekend in historic fashion with a new tournament record of 57.04 pounds.
That left the rest of the 141-team field dining on their dust, winning by 4.29 pounds over Sleeman’s Oliver and Jason Gibbons in second (52.75).
“It was pretty exciting,” recalled Sharp, who collected approximately $23,000 along with O’Connor for the win in what was only his second KBI appearance after the pair finished 10th last year (47.12).
“We were not really sure at the end of the day when Oliver and Jason came through, but we knew we had good weights,” he added.
After leading following Day 1 (17.78) and then trailing the Gibbons duo by only .09 of a pound after a Day 2 catch of 20.40, O’Connor and Sharp reeled in Day 3’s second-biggest bag (18.86).
That put the pressure on the Sleeman anglers as the final team to weigh in.
But the Gibbons pairing, who have been frequent top-10 finishers at the event, could only come up with 14.48 to put the title firmly in O’Connor and Sharp’s grasp.
“It was all about patience on Day 3,” offered Sharp, who works for his family’s construction firm based in Stratton.
“It was after 10 a.m. before we even had a fish in the boat,” he continued.
“But we hit a couple of different spots and then picked up a few on the way back. Things just worked perfect for us.”
Perfection or anything even close to it didn’t seem likely to Sharp as he and O’Connor tested the waters of Lake of the Woods before the tournament.
“Our pre-fishing was terrible,” admitted Sharp.
“We had nothing over 2.5 pounds the whole two days,” he added. “We would have been happy to pull in 13 pounds on the first day, never mind 18.”
The winning pair reeled in the biggest smallmouth bass on each of the last two days of the tourney, both weighing in at approximately 4.9 pounds.
Familiarity with the lake and each other played a big part in their success, according to Sharp.
“Jon and I have been fishing together since we were younger,” explained Sharp.
“We grew up in the area and know Lake of the Woods,” he added.
Sharp previously fished in the Emo Walleye Classic and the Rainy River Walleye Classic and he and O’Connor’s triumph have him considering taking the plunge next year and trying his luck for the first time at the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship.
As for now, he plans to enjoy his newfound wealth in conservative fashion.
“I’ll probably pay some bills and buy some fishing tackle,” he noted. “Maybe even save a little.”
Landing in third place was the team of Dave Bennett (Longbow Lake) and Mark Libitka (Kenora), as they were the only other team to exceed the 50-pound barrier with a mark of 50.73.
Brad Doerksen (Kenora) and Rennie Balciunas (Winnipeg) were fourth with 49.35, while Jay Siemens (Altona, Man.) and Mark Tully (Winnipeg) finished fifth (48.19).
The Kenora duo of Darren Marcine and Wade Cox were sixth (48.04), while Derek Wagenaar (Kenora) and James Hendy (Keewatin) settled for seventh (48.03).
As for the defending champion team of Fort Frances’ Bryan Gustafson and Kenora’s Jamie Bruce stumbled out of the gate with just 12.82 on Day 1.
But the duo gathered momentum as the event went on, hitting for 15.37 on Day 2 and then the day’s biggest fish (5.34) and biggest catch (19.26) on Day 3 to wind up eighth (47.45).
Morson’s Pat Gibbons and Pat Handorgan took ninth (47.40), while Winnipeg’s Tye and Luke Hiebert closed out the top 10 (47.11).
Nathan Meyers of Emo and former Emo resident Brett Meyers (now in Kenora) were 11th (46.93).
Troy Norman, the only other Rainy River District fisherman to make the top 20, was exactly 20th with partner Jay Samsal (Kenora) at 45.24.
Celebrity names in the field included Winnipeg Jets defenceman and Mound, Minn., resident Dustin Byfuglien, who teamed with Matt Peters (St. Francis, Minn.) to finish in 56th spot (41.78).
Another hockey hotshot, Kenora native Mike Richards, partnered with Trevor Socholotuk of Kenora to take 69th place (40.20).
Richards recently has his NHL contract terminated by the Los Angeles Kings on June 29 for what the team called “a material breach of the requirements” of his playing contract.
This came after he was arrested at the Emerson, Man., border crossing into North Dakota on June 17 and his subsequent investigation for what the Winnipeg Sun reported as possession of the prescription drug oxycodone.
The NHL Players Association on Monday filed a grievance on behalf of Richards contesting the termination.
As for the big fish of the tourney, Kenora’s Blake Lundin and Mitch Lawrence tipped the scales with a 5.79-pounder to earn the Day 1 crown.
But that was a minnow compared to the Gibbins duo, who ended up with the largest fish of the tourney with their Day 2 capture of a 6.28-pounder.
In total, anglers caught 2,027 fish at the tourney weighing a combined 5,458.50 pounds.
The next major tournament in the northwestern Ontario region runs this weekend when the Atikokan Bass Classic gets going on Friday and concludes on Saturday.
