The 2006 Lake & Trail Renegade Bass tournament series started off with a bang-the bang of thunder that woke many of the anglers last Sunday morning. By starting time the lightning and heavy rain had been replaced by bright skies and high winds. The St. Lawrence River at Morrisburg was a sea of whitecaps, making travel to their favourite hotspots a real challenge for the 150 anglers, particularly when some of those hotspots were as far away as Cornwall to the east and Lake Ontario to the west. By the end of the tournament, winds had increased to 35 km/h with gusts even higher making the return trip even more difficult; a real test of the anglers and their equipment.
Despite the difficult conditions, the St. Lawrence provided generously of its bounty, particularly smallmouth bass, with the majority of teams bringing a five fish limit to the scales for a total weight of 883 pounds. This year Renegade Bass is utilizing the new Shimano 'Wet- Weigh' system to ensure even safer handling of the fish. All but two of the 332 fish were safely returned to river using the Shimano Live Release Boat.
At the end of the day, the winners were the team of Duane Clifton and Wayne Riley with a weight of 17.78 pounds, for which they received $3000 and the first place trophy. Big fish of the day was a 4.36 pound beauty weighed in by Gary Welch and Mike Leger. When interviewed following the tournament, Duane and Wayne indicated that they had travelled east to a couple of spots located during their one day of prefishing. All their smallmouth, and they caught a lot of fish, came from shallow water (2 feet or less). They felt that the secret to their success lay in the use of a driftsock, which slowed them down and provided the opportunity to work their best spots thoroughly.
They fished the same stretch again and again, culling fish to reach the winning weight. This is the first year that the two anglers have fished Renegade as a team, and Wayne's first victory in 10 years with the organization-a proud day for both of them. Wayne would like to thank his sponsors, Mews Chevrolet and Prestige Furniture in Orleans.
This was the first of five tournaments in which the teams battle to become one the top 30 teams to qualify for the Classic and a chance to win a fully-rigged Ranger 188VS equipped with a 175 HP Yamaha outboard provided by Ranger, Yamaha and Lake & Trail. The next qualifying tournament will be held at Muskrat Lake in Cobden on July 15th. This year's Classic will be held at Petrie Island on the Ottawa River Sept. 9 & 10.
TOP TEN FINISHERS
Wayne Riley/Dwayne Clifton 17.78 Andrew Murdoch/Robert Greenberg 17.74 Paul Shibata/Craig Lister 17.60 Carl Roy/Gilbert Harrigan 17.50 Gary Welch/Mike Leger 17.04 Jeff Barber/Clancy Mulvihill 16.86 Jean Morin/Serge Carriere 16.76 Dave Benson/Dave Robertson 16.24 Paul Spinelli/Tony DeBoer 16.18 Jamie Hearty/Chris Patacairk 15.94