North Eastern Ontario Bass Association
Parry Sound, Ontario-September 6th-7th

The Gifford brothers continued their hot streak by claiming their second consecutive win on the NEOBA circuit. In the past 30 days the Giffords have won an Extreme bass tournament on lake Nippissing, an NEOBA event on lake Nippissing and now the NEOBA event in Parry Sound, making them the team to watch going into the final 2 events on the NEOBA trail.

Mike and Howie Gifford stunned the other NEOBA competitors by bringing in a whopping 22.45 pounds of smallies to the scales, including a 5.45 pound ‘toad’ that took big fish award for the weekend. Mike Gifford informed competitors that their fish came from a variety of spots on Saturday, “It’s funny how things just workout sometimes, everywhere we went we got big bites”. Howie Gifford kept a close eye on their big fish Saturday, “When I put that big fish in the livewell it just layed on its side, surprisingly it didn’t put up much of a fight either. I was afraid that big old bass was going to have a heart attack and die on us.” The NEOBA rules state that anglers cannot weigh in dead fish, so the Giffords were rightly concerned. On Sunday, Howie and Mike brought in 14.15 pounds by keying in on a small stretch of shoreline in the “Big Sound”, bringing their total 2 day weight to 36.60 pounds. For the win the Giffords brought home approximately $1,800, plus $420 for big fish.

Finishing a close second was the team of Bruce Rodgers and Ernie Matton with a total weight of 35.25 pounds. Ernie and Bruce brought in a stellar weight of 21.22 pounds Saturday, but came up a bit short Sunday. Bruce, a longtime supporter and competitor on the NEOBA trail said “A win would have been nice but I’m happy to finally get into the top 3”. For their second place finish the team took home approximately $1,500.

Third place went to the team of Thomson and Weber, this teams consistency paid off as they brought in 16.29 pounds and 16.41 pounds each day for a total of 32.70 pounds. For third place the team won approximately $1,200.

The second big fish award went to Brad Gilson and Tim Ellis, they brought in a big ‘bucket’ that weighed 5 pounds even, on Sunday. The second big fish prize was $280. Gilson and Ellis, who targeted largemouth bass all day Sunday, reportedly saw 2 or 3 other big largemouth in the same area as their big one, but were unable to coax them into biting.