Team Ontario - B.A.S.S Highschool Eastern Divisional - Connecticut River

Just got home from the Connecticut river this past weekend with Team Ontario, and it was a blast. We arrived in CT on Saturday night and pre-fished sunday-wednesday. Our coach didn't show up till monday night so we fished sunday with Team member Frank Ramsay and on monday we fished with Doug Brownridge who also made the team last year when we fished on the St. Lawrence River! Doug and Frank have both fished the Connecticut River before and we learnt a lot from them in the 2 days we fished with them. I've never fished tidal water before and it was pretty cool learning it. We had 2 days to pre fish with our coach Forrest Weiller and it was a grindddd. This time of the year is one of the toughest time to fish on the river. 5 bites a day would be awesome. Going into day one, we had some spots that we were confident in. We hit most of our weigh points, and didn't catch a fish till about noon when we went back to one of our spots at the same tide we went to it during pre fish. Prefish was nothing like our tournament day. Durring pre fish we were doing a lot of casting and winding with chatter baits, spinner baits, crank baits, and jerk baits, but day one the fish decided to slow down for some reason. We really had to slow down and we caught 4 fish on our one spot on texas rigged senko's. We were fishing a main river flat with rock, sand and weed with heavy current. We caught 4 fish really quick before we had to make our I hour run back to weigh in. Ive never been so pumped to not even catch a limit.. Day one we lead the tournament with 5.5pounds.. but did not have much of a lead and needed to get a limit on day 2 to have a chance at winning this thing. Day 2 comes around and we hit all of our spots we had fish on during practice. We spent the majority of our day on the same main river flat but just couldn't get them to go. The fish were there, but we couldn't get them to bite. Sometimes thats just how it goes.. We ended up going from Ist place to last place.. Just goes to show if your leading day one, it means nothing, but to work your butt off day 2 and try to catch em again. You gotta catch em 2 days in a row, but we just couldn't get them to go like we did day I. Even tho we finished last for the Highschoolers, words can't describe what it feels like to get back up on that BASS stage. I get the chills every time I walk up onto it. It was our last year to fish as Highschool students, but we made Team Ontario again as seniors for 20I6!!! We could be travelling as far as florida, and I am pumped! Im super lucky, and without the help of my parents and friends, this wouldn't be possible. A HUGE thanks to our previous high school coaches David Chong(Sturgeon Lake OBN high school Qualifier) , Tony Chimiri (St lawrence river Team Ontario) , Stan Pilarczyk (B.A.S.S high school Nationals) and Forrest Weiller (Connecticut River Team Ontario), our youth director Doug Ferguson, Laurie Charlebois for all her hard work with the team the last few years, my parents, all the guys from Team Ontario, B.A.S.S, Ontario BASS Nation, Port Perry bass masters, and everyone else who helped out! The list is HUGE, wooooooooop and a Massive congrats for Charles sim for winning for our team and will be heading to the nationals within the next 2 months at a shot at fishing the Bassmaster Classic.. Go Charles!