Quinte Fishing Series – 2012 Season September 29th, 2011

Firstly, on behalf of the executive, I want to thank all the anglers who took the time to complete the survey that was handed out at the Quinte Classic and those who also took the time to drop by and give us their input or sent emails. I want to convey a couple of things that we, as an executive, feel are very important. The results of the survey or conversations we had with anglers were not taken lightly and we spent over three hours Monday night going over the information and deciding if changes needed to be made. Every member of the executive had the mind set of “what is the right thing to do, what is best for the Series”, not what do I as an individual angler want or is best for me! Personally, I want to thank Bob, Brian, Danny, Art, Randy, Mat and Rick for their professionalism and dedication to the Series and trying to make the best decisions going forward.
The Quinte Fishing Series started very humble fourteen years ago with the first year entries at about 23 boats. Over the years we have seen, for the most part, steady growth with entries going up each year to a high of 75 boats two and three years ago. We as an executive feel that the decrease over this year and last can be attributed mainly to tough economic times and anglers not willing to travel as far as in past years. We do also recognize that we may have strayed somewhat from our “roots” - entries increased, boats and engines became larger and with that the ability to travel farther and with more teams, higher payouts and prizes. The Series has always strived to be known as a well run, competitive and FUN tournament series with reasonable entries fees and good return for your investment. We feel that we still do those things well and will hopefully continue to do so.
Over the past two years every member on the executive has heard some minor grumbling or comments and we certainly look at tournament results and see if patterns were developing, certainly we have seen a pattern in the Classic! This is the main reason we decided to ask you, our anglers, for your input and comments with this year’s survey. Certain questions on the survey; Classic qualifying, 115 Hp and under, Team of the Year prizes all came back with the majority not wanting any change while we certainly needed to look at other questions more closely. So in doing this Monday night, the executive unanimously support the following changes for the 2012 Quinte Fishing Series tournament season.
• The opening walleye tournament will stay a one (1) day event and will be on Sunday, May 27th, 2012.
• The opening bass event of 2012 will be a two (2) day tournament, largemouth bass only with open water. Date will be July 7/8th.
• The second bass tournament will also be a largemouth bass only event – open water and will be held on July 22nd.
• The second two (2) day tournament will be on August 11/12th and it will be a largemouth and/or smallmouth bass event – open water.
• The last qualifier for the Quinte Classic will be on August 26th and will also be a largemouth and/or smallmouth bass tournament – open water.
The 2012 Quinte Classic will be on Saturday and Sunday, September 15/16th and will be a largemouth bass only event – open water!

** The tournament site/weigh-in will once again be at George St., Belleville for ALL tournaments! As in the past, teams will have to qualify for the Classic, see rule 29 Revised:2011.

The 115 H.P. and under division will continue in 2012 but with a slight change. Last year saw between 9-12 boats per event with teams eligible for both overall prizes and a bonus prize (entry fee back). For 2012, the top team in the 115 HP and under division in each event will receive $100.00 cash and we will continue with the “Team of the Year” prize of “FREE ENTRIES” for the next year along with reserved boat/entry number two (2).

Entry fees over the years have not increased substantially and in fact went down at one time a few years ago. The cost to maintain/replace equipment, fuel and site rentals continue to rise so for 2012, entries will increase $10.00 per team per event with this $10.00 increase going to the Series. One day (1) tournaments will now be $185.00/team and $260.00 for the two (2) day events.

The executive knows we will NOT please everyone and may in fact loose teams with the decisions made but hope like us, you will feel that the Series offers a viable tournament experience here “on the Bay of Quinte” and will continue to grow. The Series has always had conservation and safety as part of our equation of running a tournament circuit and the well being and the mortality rate of fish, especially smallmouth, we always monitor. Some of the decisions made and put in place today reflect those ideas and concerns.
We look forward to the 2012 season with much anticipation as we hope you do and thank you once again for you support in the past and in the future. Just a reminder, entries for the 2012 season will be accepted starting November 15th, 2011- not before!
In fishing,
Pete Thompson, Tournament Director
Committee Members: Mat Seeley, Randy Cronkwright, Bob Mackie, Brian Hadley, Art MacConnell, Danny Elliot, Rick Somerville.

Record Weights On First Day Of 2011 Quinte Classic!

The final event of the 2011 Quinte Fishing Series, the Quinte Classic, left the George St. ramps on Saturday and Sunday, September 17/18th. Forty four teams from all over eastern Ontario left at 7:00 a.m. Saturday with check-in at 4:00 and 4:30 p.m.

Oshawa’s Jay Martin and Brad Arnott, weighing-in two hours early on Saturday, had a great weight of smallmouths at 23.75 lbs. “We didn’t want to burn any more fish and didn’t think we could really improve our overall weight so we came in early and will hope we can find these fish tomorrow”, stated Jay. In this great bag of smallies was one at 5.90 lb. which was enough at the end of day one to give them the second biggest fish of the day and for that, they received two Cumara rods courtesy of Shimano Canada.

The big story of day one was the number of 20 lb. plus bags that came to the scales. In all, 10 great bags over 20 lbs. were weighed in but no one could catch Martin and Arnott for the day one lead. In second place day one were Curtis Richardson and Rob Webster with 22.35 lbs. with Kingston’s Bruce Tufts and Lee Sprague in third at 22.05 lbs. followed by three other teams with over 21.00 lbs.

Weather day two was again cooler but the winds were calm and no fog so teams could make long runs if they so desired. Weigh-in Sunday was at 2:30 and 3:00 p.m. and the early first flight leaders were Napanee’s Grant Elliott and Karl Neumayer with a two day total of 39.65 lbs. This held up till half way through the final flight weigh-ins when Belleville’s Mat Seeley and Steve Yarrow came to the scales. With big weight day two of 22.90 lbs, they took the lead and the Quinte Classic Championship with a great two day total of 43.00 lbs. “We had a good day yesterday and thought we could put two days together on smallmouths. But my engine (225 hp) gave out when we got back to the check-in yesterday and we had to change boats last night and we used Steve’s boat today. With his engine being a 150 hp we knew it would take longer to get to our spots and we wouldn’t have as long to fish but we took the chance and got lucky and caught the fish we needed”. For the win, Mat and Steve took home $3,800.00 and a $50.00 gift certificate from Kelsey’s/Montana’s-Belleville. Elliott and Neumayer with their weight of 39.65 lbs. took home $2,600.00 for second place and said “we had a good prefish and although we didn’t have a good year, things worked out for us this weekend”.

Brian Greven from Brechin and Dan Maw from Lindsay took the third place money of $1500.00 for their weight of 38.70 lbs. “We thought we would need smallmouth to win this weekend, said Dan and we found them Saturday but we had to work hard to get our weight today”. With 37.40 lbs, Darcy and Ben Asselstine secured fourth place and $950.00 and said they caught their fish early and had their limit in three hours. Fifth place went to Belleville’s Jeff Kerr and Codie Lonsberry with 36.95 lbs. giving them $700.00. “Yesterday we caught a lot of fish on spinnerbaits and tubes but today we scrambled – we could see good fish but we couldn’t get them to bite”, explained Codie.

Third after day one, Tufts and Sprague slipped to sixth with a two day total of 36.40 lbs. giving them $400.00 for their efforts. These anglers also had the second biggest fish of day two which gave them two Cumara rods compliments again of Shimano Canada. “We had a great day yesterday but today we only had four fish when we headed back to the weigh-in”, said a disappointed Bruce. The final team taking home money was Napanee’s Andy Asselstine and partner Jason Sexsmith from Marlbank who received $250.00 for their weight of 36.25 lbs. These anglers, weighing-in largemouth, had big fish of the weekend, a great fish of 6.55 lbs. from Saturday, which gave them $880.00 in cash, two $75.00 gift certificates from Canadian Tire-Belleville and two $25.00 gift cards for the Boathouse Seafood Restaurant in Belleville, “Big Fish” plaque and a limited edition print compliments of BassTazz. “I caught it on a jig, which I seldom use, stated Andy, at about 11:00 in the morning. Where we were fishing, we caught a lot of pike –we probably caught over 100 lbs. of pike over the two days but we found good bass the first day but it was slower today”.

The top team in the 115 H.P. and under division was Trenton’s Tom and Jeff Adair who finished in 10th place and received $250.00. This father and son team had a rough start to the weekend having engine trouble first thing Saturday morning and lost two hours of fishing time before they managed to get it fixed and back on the water. But perseverance pays off as they had “Big Fish” day two of 5.90 lbs. so they also took home $880.00 in cash and the gift certificates from Canadian Tire and the Boathouse Restaurant and print from BassTazz. “We really want to thank the guys at Belleville Sport and Lawn for getting us going again Saturday morning – the fish came on a spinnerbait, which we threw most of the weekend”, said Jeff.

The who received $250.00. This team had engine/prop problems all weekend so maybe this will help pay for repairs!

With this being the final event for the 2011 season, a number of special awards and prizes were given out after tournament prize presentations Sunday. The first award given out was the Blair Smith Memorial Award given to the top angler for the season between the ages of 26 and 39 – the years that Blair fished the Quinte Fishing Series. On behalf of Blair’s wife Tammy and the Smith family, tournament director Pete Thompson was pleased to present the award for the second time to Darcy Asselstine.

“Since the Series started 14 years ago, we have presented an award to a team that we feel displays what the Q.F.S. stands for; good sportsmanship, good fishing ability and the ability to have FUN! This year’s winners have fished the Series for a long time, are proven anglers and always have a smile on their faces and I’m proud to give the annual “Frazee” award to Karl Neumayer and Grant Elliott”, explained Thompson. Karl, who is always smiling, said, “we fish to have fun and not get too excited and we enjoy our time on the water”.

The “Angler/Team of the Year” prizes were once again quite close going into the final event especially in the overall category. In the 115 H.P. and under division, Tweed’s Ron Ellery and partner Troy Davis from Warkworth had a good lead going into the weekend. Last year’s winners, Richard Campbell and Paul Downer, were 33 points back but had a great day Saturday with over 20.00 lbs. This made for an interesting Sunday but they could not repeat that weight on day two and with 27.20 lbs. for the weekend, Ellery and Davis claimed this hard fought title. For their win, Ron and Troy received free entries for the 2012 season and $500.00 cash. “We thought we would be okay this weekend but after Richard and Paul posted that weight on Saturday, we were pretty nervous going out on Sunday but we’re thrilled to win in this very competitive division”, said a excited Ron. “We fished shallow and then deep trying to get something going this weekend but we didn’t weigh-in our usual weights and are fortunate”, stated Troy.

The overall race for “Team of the Year” was much closer with just eight points separating first and second. In second place going into the weekend were Seeley and Yarrow with 40 points and with their win sat at 41 points for the year. The leaders, Darcy and Ben Asselstine, had 32 points at the start of the tournament and with their fourth place finish for the Classic took their second Team of the Year title in a row finishing with 36 points! For their win, they received a Polarkraft 14’ aluminum boat, 15 H.P. Mercury four stroke engine and Northtrail trailer. “Everyone knows we fish largemouths and we fish them hard, said Darcy, and we had to work hard this weekend to finish on top. It’s a tough title to win, there are a lot of good fishermen out there and we’re happy to pull it off again”. For their Runner-up finish, Mat and Steve received free entries for the 2012 season and a three night vacation package from Merland Park Resort in Picton. “We’ve enjoyed fishing together this year and we congratulate Darcy and Ben on another good year”, said Mat. Steve added, “I want to thank our wives especially for their help last night to get the boats changed over and making sure we were ready to go today”.

Number of draw prizes was handed out and we thank Merland Park Resort for two vacation packages, Minn Kota for two trolling motors, Humminbird for two fish finders and Shimano for two Cumara rods that went home with appreciative anglers!

Tournament Director and M.C. Pete Thompson thanked the staff/volunteers that help run the events over the summer and especially his weigh master Rick Somerville for their dedication to the Series. He also thanked the executive, Mat Seeley, Art MacConnell, Bob Mackie, Randy Cronkwright, Dan Elliot, Brian Hadley and Rick for their time and commitment. The executive will be meeting over the next three weeks to review the results from this weekend’s survey and will be posting by Oct.15th next year’s dates as well as any changes to tournament format. Entries for next year will be available and accepted after Nov. 15th, 2011.

“We have many great sponsors and we couldn’t do this without their support year after year, stated Thompson. On behalf of our executive and all our anglers we thank you most sincerely: Art’s Signs, The Belleville and District Fish and Game Club, Belleville Sport and Lawn, Bay Marine, Berkley, The Boathouse Seafood Restaurant, Canadian Tire-Belleville, Deerhaven Farm and Garden Ltd., FlyerMail, Benton Fry Ford Sales Ltd., Humminbird, Kelsey’s/Montana’s-Belleville, Line X-Kingston, McInroy-Maines Construction Ltd., Mercury Marine, Merland Park Resort, Minn Kota, Northtrail Trailers, Pro Tackle, Quinte Outdoor Sports, Rawdon Refrigeration, Redwing Tackle-Ajax, Rose’s Scale Belleville Ltd., Runway Power Sports, SWE Autoglass, Shimano Canada, Vulcan Excavating and www.quintefishing.com