The Road to the FLW Canada Championship
Earning a shot at the Costa FLW Series Championship and the Forrest Wood Cup
It all started when my partner, Danny McGarry, and I decided to fish the FLW Canada tournament on Rice Lake. Because of budget limitations, we could only fish the one qualifying event, so we decided to pick Rice Lake, as it was close to home.
Whether after work or on a weekend, we were out there frequently and trying to find a winning pattern. Time on the water is key, and because we lived less than an hour away, I would go out after work, even if just for an hour.
Who knows, I thought, that could be the hour when we found our potential winning spot.
All we really cared about was placing in the top 10 to qualify for the FLW Canada Championship on Big Rideau set for Sept. 16-18, 2016. Yes, the money for winning would be a bonus, but that wasn’t on our minds so much as knowing that it could lead to the 2017 Costa FLW Series Championship and even the 2018 Forrest Wood Cup.
After getting out on the lake and putting our time in, then comparing notes, we ended up finding some decent fish prior to the tournament. On day one, we caught 18.10 pounds and backed it up in the second round with another 18.05 limit of smallmouths for a two-day weight of 36.15 pounds and seventh place – good enough to make the FLW Canada Championship.
The main event
From then on, our main focus was the FLW Canada Championship. After a bit of research, mapping and doing what homework we could, we were ready to get out on Big Rideau to try and figure something out. Dan and I both took a week off work so we could get a full six days on the water. Sun up to sun down. We slept in the back of my dad’s truck for nine days straight, and ate a whackload of peanut butter sandwiches and McDonald’s burgers. Dan also cooked some spaghetti on the Coleman stove one night, and that was like eating a gourmet dinner. By the end of the trip the truck smelled like a barn. I found out later that my mom gave me my dog’s memory foam bed to sleep on (thanks, Mom).
Going into the tournament, we believed that smallmouths or a mixed bag would win it, and with about 18 pounds a day we would be right there in the mix. We decided to try to find some largemouths, but couldn’t get on them, so we stuck to our smallie program for the rest of our pre-fish period.
Three-day events aren’t the easiest. You have to find a lot of water to fish over the course of the event to make sure you don’t run out of water and fish during the tournament. It took us a few days to figure them out, but when we did it all lined up beautifully as we found a bunch of quality fish. We had one big-fish spot and about eight other areas with 3- and 4-pounders, all smallmouths. Our pre-fish was unbelievably good, which – strange as it might seem – was terrifying. Often a great pre-fish means a bad tournament. But our big fish stayed in the same area for around six days, and we were confident they would still be there because of the consistent weather we were having.
A good start
By the time the tournament began, we were pretty excited to get out there. We knew we needed about 18 pounds a day to have a crack at winning, so that was the goal for the opening round. By noon we had around 17 pounds in the boat and decided to leave our big-fish spot, save all of our other areas and go find some new stuff. Given it was a multi-day event, we didn’t want to burn anything, and with 17 pounds we were confident we were sitting pretty good. With a random fish in the afternoon, we were able to cull once and took 17.98 to the scale. We hit our target, and we were in seventh place going into the second round.
At the start of day two, there was a two-hour fog delay. That was especially bad for us because we had some big topwater fish going early, and we were worried they wouldn’t be interested that late in the morning. The game plan called for me to throw a drop-shot rig and Danny to work the topwater.
Sure enough, Dan had some good ones explode on the bait, but they kept missing it. I ended up catching a 3-pounder on the drop-shot that we later on culled. We ended up plucking two good smallies off our big-fish spot, then left it alone to try some of our other areas. By 1 o’clock we had caught another 17 and change, so, again, we left our spots to check some new water. We pulled up on a spot we thought might hold some good ones, and on our second pass Dan caught a 4-pounder that gave us a total of 18.31 pounds. Heading into day three, we were in second place with 36.29 pounds.
You can imagine how we felt that Sunday morning as the championship round got underway, knowing we were about a pound behind the leaders. We were excited and nervous at the same time, but with the support of our parents, friends and family, it made us want to win that much more.
We had put so much time in and basically staked all the money we had in our bank accounts toward this tournament. We wanted it bad. That’s all Dan and I had talked about since the day we qualified on Rice Lake. Dan and I have competed in the States. We loved going south to compete, learning more and meeting new people. Yes, the money can be great, but what we really wanted was to compete in the Costa FLW Series Championship for a shot at fishing the Forrest Wood Cup, which would be a dream come true.
So, here we were: day three. At this point we couldn’t do much more than just go fishing and try to repeat what we were doing the first two days. And that’s exactly what we did.
The grand finale
At just over a pound behind the leaders, we knew that we needed at least a 20-pound bag to seal the deal. We pounded our big-fish spot all day, only getting six bites, but they were the right ones.
Around 1 p.m., FLW Weighmaster Chris Jones came and did a short interview on the water with us, and by that time we thought we had about the same as the first two days, around 18 or 19 pounds. We were sure it was going to take another 4- or 5-pounder to get to that 20-pound mark. Knowing that the next bite was most likely going to be a big one, we ended up grinding it out in the same area the rest of the day without landing another fish.
When we got to weigh-in we heard the leaders had about 19 pounds. We were bummed. We figured we had about 19 pounds as well, but we were a pound behind to start the day. Danny and l didn’t do much talking as we waited to weigh our fish. We both thought we were going to wind up in second or third. Second would get us into the Costa FLW Series Championship, but we definitely wanted to go down south as boaters rather than co-anglers, as our tournament rules dictate. Still, at this point we had our fingers crossed for second. We bagged our fish, and up to the scales we went, needing 19.68 for runners-up, and 20.17 to beat leaders Oleg Lapidus and Scott Murison and become Canadian champions. Wishful thinking, really, because with around 19 pounds, we figured we were headed for a third-place showing.
Then, after Chris Jones did what he does best on stage, which is build suspense and excitement, he took his hands off the scale and said, “Five today worth … 20.42. Your champions, woooooooooow!”
I blanked. I don’t even remember what came next. I’ve never had that happen to me before. I gave Danny a massive hug, slapped his back so hard I think it left a bruise. The smallies we caught must have been eating craws on steroids because we underestimated our weight by about a pound and a half. We did it; we caught a 20-pound sack to earn spots as International Division qualifiers to the Costa FLW Series Championship on Kentucky Lake Nov. 2-4.
Now we’ll put the money we won toward that championship and reaching for our biggest goal: fishing the Forrest Wood Cup. There are so many people to thank for the opportunity. We couldn’t have done it without our families and all of our fishing friends who believed in us and gave us unwavering support. The number of messages we received during the first two days and after the tournament was ridiculous. Also, we give huge thanks to FLW Canada and everyone at FLW who made it all possible.
A couple of years ago, Danny and I competed in a high school tournament on Kentucky Lake, and we didn’t do so well. It’s time for redemption. We’ve gone to school together since we were 5 and have been fishing partners since the age of 13, and it’s tough knowing we will have to split up and fish against one another, with only one person from each division at the championship being guaranteed a spot at the Forrest Wood Cup.
It will be even harder for our parents; we are like brothers, and my Mom always tells us we fight like an old married couple. But that’s fishing at this level. Come what may, Dan and I are going to work together and do our very best to make sure one of us gets to fish in the Forrest Wood Cup.
We’re just one tournament away from our shared dream coming true.
Whoooooop!