crackle cup 2004 doesn’t break Canadian tournament record …
Winners had to settle for 2nd heaviest bag of smallies ever brought to Canadian scales

The winning bag of 27.38 pounds of smallmouth bass
Centre Dave Johnson, to his right is his partner Barry Graves
and on the far left is Aurora Bassmaster’s weigh-master Scott Pierce

By Wil Wegman
OBF Media Director

Lake Simcoe , ON Canada : When an annual bass tournament does not set a new record for the heaviest five bass ever weighed in, it really isn’t newsworthy… or is it? In the case of the Crackle Cup held on the last Saturday of October every year – it certainly is. In 2003 the team of Jayson Saliba and Bob Formosa rocked the Canadian bass fishing world when they weighed in an incredible 27. 1 pounds which proved to be a record for the heaviest five bass ever brought to the scales in a Canadian bass tournament. A year later, not only did Lake Simcoe once again produce a Canadian record at the Crackle Cup, but the same dynamic team did it with a whopping 29.59 pounds of smallmouth bass... resulting in one of the heaviest 5 smallmouth bass stringers ever weighed in a tournament anywhere on the planet.

They hype for the 2004 Crackle Cup was accelerated by several newspaper articles and plenty of scuttlebutt on local internet bass forums. Marc Coratti, president of the Aurora Bassmasters and one of the regular competitors noted before the tournament “I think we could easily set a record again this year. In prefish, I caught two smallies over 6 ½ pounds each – on two consecutive casts! And others I know have said they put close to 30 pounds together while pre-fishing for this tournament. Conditions the week before the event were for the most part pretty good as anglers were able to travel the 725 square kilometer lake in relative ease thanks to a few days of low winds. Ah, but how things often change come tournament day!

Unfortunately for the 34 competing anglers the weather forecasts of thunderstorms, heavy rain and strong winds throughout the day were bang-on. Many anglers knew they could not make the run they had hoped for. Others like the team of Jack Vogel and Ralph Ruzzi came all the way from Montreal and had never fished the lake before. It was the opportunity to catch some of Simcoe’s legendary fall trophy smallmouth that got them here. In fact although everyone fishing the event wanted to top the magic 30 pound mark for five bass, many just enjoy the opportunity to take part in an event where almost everyone catches a trophy smallmouth. And speaking of big bass – the 6.68 pound smallmouth brought in by the team of Doug Brownridge and Mark Moran won the Big Bass pot and was the only fished weighed in by these well known anglers.

2004 Crackle Cup Results: The winners of the 2004 Crackle Cup were the team of Dave Johnson and Barry Graves who brought in an amazing 27.38 pounds of smallmouth. Their heaviest bass was a monster 6.62 pounder. They took home $700 for first place and the newly designed Crackle Cup trophy/plaques. As well as having the distinction of the 2 nd heaviest bag of smallmouth ever weighed in during a Canadian bass tournament, they also can now lay claim to unseating the two time Crackle Cup champions of Saliba and Formosa .

In second place were John MacDonald and Steve Hawkins with an equally impressive weight of 26.86 pounds of smallmouth. A distant third were the team of Gerry Heels and Wil Wegman with 23.58 pounds of bass. Former champions Jayson Saliba and Bob Formosa had to settle for 4 th place this year with 22.94 pounds and fifth spot went to Scott Pierce and Pete Smith with 22.30 pounds.

The 4th Annual Crackle* Cup is hosted by the Aurora Bassmaster Club which is one of about 25 clubs belonging to the Ontario BASS Federation. All bass caught during the Crackle Cup were weighed on Equalizer Scales and live-released back into the cold (50 Degree F.) waters of Lake Simcoe .

* Crackle is a small gel-coated capsule filled with freeze-dried crystals that emit an enticing sound once it comes into contact with water. Typically, anglers insert a Crackle capsule into their tube-jigs … believing that the sound produced is not unlike that of a crayfish as it scurries across the bottom.