By Brad Walters

Tournament fishermen, get on the phone and put your order in because somewhere in the shop at Fabricated Alloys there is the main ingredient for mental toughness. Business owner Peter Savoia knows what it is ………but will he sell?

At the Canadian Fishing Tour’s 2-Day National Classic this weekend in Barrie Ontario, Peter revealed for all to see what a true competitor is made of. After making what he called a ‘rookie mistake’ on Saturday he rebounded in the final round Sunday to take the Classic title and walked away with a Triton TR21 bass boat equipped with a 225 Mercury Optimax engine and a Minn Kota 101 lb thrust trolling motor, and a 3 year lease on a Ford F150 truck. Total package valued at $85,000.00.

What was that ‘rookie mistake’ that he made? Everyone wants to know. Well, what Peter did that Saturday afternoon was something anyone of us could have, what tournament anglers all over fear. He got completely rapped up in the moment and left something very important in his boat. For those that were there, we all saw Peter revving up the crowd during his drive up to the stage. He was pumping his fist and smiling from ear to ear, he knew he was about to take the lead. He continued to reach into the live well for more fish but somewhere along the line he lost count, and when he handed over his bag of fish to the weigh-master and climbed up on stage it was one fish lighter than it should have been, but by then it was too late.

It was apparent by Peter’s body language that he fully understood what he had done. To most of us he had just fumbled his way out of the Classic and to do it in that manner was heartbreaking. We all experience heartbreak on the water in this most humbling of sports when fish seem to disappear overnight, but to have the fish in the live well and not get them to the weigh-in tank is inconceivable.

How does an angler deal with that? Does he go back to the motel and wallow in his own disappointment? That’s how some of us would have dealt with it, but not Peter Savoia. Sometime between walking dejectedly back to his boat and nine o’clock that night Peter made a decision not to beat himself. He understood the rules; he laid no blame on anyone or anything. He had made a mistake and the only way to apologize was to toughen up and go out and fish, and that he did. His 18.60 pounds on Day 3 was the second biggest bag of fish weighed that day and enough to hold off second place finisher Rob Laframboise by more than a pound.

I first met Peter this spring at the Spring Fishing Show and after that meeting I believed that this was a person easily underestimated. Coke bottle glasses, quick to laugh and a little on the short side, it’s pretty easy to stereotype. But after a short conversation at dinner I realized that there was a mind inside that had a lot to offer. He struck me as one of those guys quick to take on the challenge, someone that when you figured something couldn’t be made, had it for you the next day. Peter built the trough system used this year in the Canadian Fishing Tour events, he makes things, complicated things, things that are hard to do. That’s what he does.

That’s what he did that Sunday in September, he made something, and this time the owner of Fabricated Alloys used mettle.