On Saturday, over 20 fishermen from the Mighty Bass League travelled to the Pontiac to compete in the league’s third of four tournaments of the season.

Part of the league’s 2019 series, the tournaments . . .

place once every month from May to August.

In the wee hours of the morning, participants gathered at the Quyon Ferry to register for the competition, before setting out in their respective tin cans for an eight-hour fishing expedition on the Ottawa River.

With 12 teams of two people each, the goal of the competition was for contestants to either find the heaviest individual fish (the lunker) or the heaviest collection of five.

While the weather was perfect for fishing, it wasn’t exactly an easy day on the water for one of the event’s main organizers Mathieu Paiement.

At one point during the tournament, his boat’s propeller suddenly broke down on him. So, for the remainder of the event, his team was forced to bust out some oars and roam the river manually. Plus, the fish didn’t exactly facilitate his job by any means.

“It was a hard day for the fish,” he said. “We didn’t have five fish, only four.”

With largely the same people participating every month, Paiement enjoys the element of camaraderie that comes with the event. Although it is competitive, it’s still a great opportunity to hang out with friends while doing something he’s very passionate about.

“I do it for the fishing,” he said. “We all get along well. It’s all people we know and it’s cool to participate in tournaments with people who you know.

Participants came out from as far as Val-des-Bois, Buckingham and even Montreal to compete in the event.

The first time the league has held a tournament on the Ottawa River, the sheer size of the waterway definitely stuck out for Paiement.

“It’s wide,” he said. “You have a lot of room. You don’t go around it in one day. That’s what’s fun.”

Competing at a universally foreign location proved to be a true test of the participants instincts and abilities.

Since nobody knew about the best spots to catch fish on the river, contestants had to play it by ear and hope to get lucky, Paiement said.

“In a new place like this, people don’t all have their spots,” he said. “It’s not like the 31 Mile Lake where everyone stays in the Matte Bay. Here you have to find your fish.”

At the end of the tournament, Pascal Rainville and Alain Junior Mineault took home the grand prize of $250 after catching five fish weighing a combined 12.08 pounds.

In second place, Marie-Pierre Venne and Phillipe Desjardins walked away with $150 for pulling up a total of 9.46 pounds with their haul.

Third on the podium were Kevin Ambroise and Sebastien Rozon, who earned $100 with 8.90 pounds worth of bass.

While he didn’t catch as many fish as he intended, Paiement still earned himself a nice $125 as he caught the big lunker – a single bass weighing a whopping 3.96 pounds.

The champs, Pascal Rainville and Alain Junior Mineault proudly smile as they celebrate their 12.08 pound haul of bass with a first place prize.

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