Courtesy of Lures & Tours

Courtesy of Lures & Tours

Barry Graves

Jason Gough

Casey Cup Rings the Opening Bell

Sunday June 28, 2009 - Orillia

The opening of bass season (the best day of the year) got off with a splash as the Casey Cup, formally the Phoenix Open blasted off from the Port of Orillia with a 129 teams on Sunday. The who's who of the  Canadian Fishing Industry were all in the line-up in support of the Cancer Research Society and in memory of those that have been lost to the disease including the tournaments namesake Gerald “Casey” Creber. 

Mother Nature teased the field with a tranquil morning just long enough for everyone to take their positions over Lake Simcoe and Couchiching. Conditions remained fair for about two hours when the first heavy breeze from the south west started. For those that stayed north fishing the bays, points and humps, conditions worsened constantly throughout the day and most of the hiding places filled quickly before 11:00 am. For those that made it south wind conditions weren't as much of a factor and the only concern was the long trip back with Simcoe in a froth in time for weigh-in. By mid afternoon the wind howled and the rain came in horizontal sheets and there was nowhere to hide on Simcoe. 

In the end teams that scored early faired well with some familiar faces on the leader board with Team Ontario’s Barry Graves of Keswick ON, and Jason Gough of Toronto taking top honors. The winning weight of 26.68 pounds of smallmouth was more than 1 ½ pounds better than Derek Strub and John Noel with 24.94 pounds. Twenty five teams weighed in more than 20 pounds, two less than 2008 but still an incredible result given the weather. 

Barry Graves is known as one of Ontario’s best power anglers. His run and gun style has been very successful for some time but particularly during the Casey Cup because weather conditions are less relevant when your looking for aggressive fish and covering a lot of water. “We covered most of Simcoe without going as far south as Cook’s Bay” said Graves. “The original target was post spawn fish but there were fish still on beds. It’s a funny year for water temperatures and the spawn seemed to be stretched out this year.”

“Most of our fish came in the first three hours. We were fishing the flats and the first break from the spawning areas in 4 to 10 feet of water. Rapala Husky Jerks, natural colored tubes and the Strike Zone slammer fished on 8lb test worked best. I’ve been using Suffix Fluorocarbon line on all my reels and it seems to have made a big difference with skittish fish, particularly when using soft baits.”

Barry also added "As with most wins, location is usually the key factor.  By spending the day before the tournament locating spawning areas, you can also figure out where they will move too immediately after the spawn."

Barry and Jason topped off a great weekend with a second place finish behind Mike Desforges and Doug Brownridge in the first Bassmania Western tour, also on Lake Simcoe.

Wind and rain are becoming part of the tradition for this tournament even though a week of perfect blue bird days led up to the event. In spite of the weather the organization and execution of the event by Andy and Vita Pallota and the CSFL team was nothing less than incredible. Lets give a big round of applause for the CSFL Team and we hope next year is a little dryer for you. 

  

                  Top 20 in the money

1  Barry GravesJason Gough      26.68

2  Derek Strub  John Noel            24.94

3           John Charters         Dallas Charters           24.28

4  Mike Miller     Pete Bowman              24.16

5            Corey Johnson       Chris Johnson             24.14

6           Joe Muszynski         Eli Prestia                     24.06

7            Dave Johnson        Jeff Evens                     23.24

8           Tom Neville               Cam Neville                  23.02

9            Brian Gardy              Brent Cotton                22.52

10         James Paluch          Shuan Macay              22.38

11         Pete Bartonek         Greig Sevink                 22.28

12         Steve Churman        Bob Young                   22.24

13         Nick Cousvis             Henry Vandellar         22.18

14         Dan Maw                   Brian Greven                22.00

15         Dan Dunn                  Grant Mills                     21.80

16         Chris Vandermeer  Jeff Slute                      21.54

17         Bob Izumi                  Daren Izumi                  21.34

18         Dan McMullen          Robin McMullen           21.24

19         Don McCaw              Carol White                  21.04

20         Shawn Walsh          Pat Quinn                      20.80