Team Ontario - Highschool

wasn't sure what to expect going into this. When I found out that Danny and l were going to represent Team Ontario, in the Eastern Divisionals in Waddington, NY, I was pumped for obvious reasons. But I did not realize how being part of Team Ontario and meeting tons of new people, who we now call friends, could have impacted Danny and myself so much. From the team members, all the way down the line to our team manager Laurie Charlebois, our Youth Director Doug Ferguson, our Junior Coach/Boater Tony Chimirri, and to our parents, your support means the world to us, and we could not have done this without you. Crossing the border, I realized how exciting this adventure would be. My parents and my partner Danny and l arrived at the Northern Family Motel on Sunday, September 21st. I already personally knew or had met close to half of the team, some of whom I had fished with before. It wasn't long until the rest of the team made me, my parents and Danny feel so welcome. The first night started off as a team meeting where we talked about everyones first day of pre-fishing. Some were struggling and some had found some good fishing spots. Everyone was supportive of each other, and helped each other throughout the week at team meetings, which were held every night in the motel. Day 2 pre fish comes around, and it was myself and Danny's first time fishing the St Lawrence River. Our coach Tony Chimirri was super supportive and he pretty much let us do our own thing during pre fish. He was also a huge help in finding fish during our pre fish times. We can't thank Tony enough for helping us out and being so supportive. Day one we found a little bit of a pattern, and duplicated what we found and it panned out just perfectly. Almost every spot we duplicated, we found fish. And the best part about this, was, they were the right ones, big ones! During our 3 pre fish days, it was very cold, cloudy and windy. But these conditions seemed to help us, we were happy with the big fish , and coming into day one it made us a little nervous because the weather was calling for no winds, and no cloud. But at the same time, we thought the fishing would get even better with the sun, which may encourage the fish to move up. My mom, and the wives who came to support Team Ontario all chipped in and made the whole team lunches everyday that we were out on the water. Instead of going to the restaurants the whole team prepared meals and ate in the huge motel kitchen that we had. Cooking the meals and sharing them together really helped with the team spirit. Day 1 - Day one comes around. Up at 430 and ready to go. We launched the boat, and l couldn't believe how excited I was. The whole trip l had a camera in my hands, whether l was at the motel, or pre fishing. One thing l love just as much as fishing is sharing my fishing experiences through videos and on my website http://www.onthewaterwithcoopergallant.com/ But day one blast off, I just couldn't do it. I was so excited that when I filmed, I couldn't keep my hands from shaking. From launching the boat, listening to the Spanish, American and Canadian Anthems, hearing the music being pumped throughout the park and over the water, I was in awe. Danny and l show up to our first spot, throw the trolling motor down and start fishing. Before we knew it, it all panned out as we had hoped and got our limit of fish. Again, the right ones, big ones! We had our limit before 12:30, and went to find some new water for day 2. We headed back for weigh in at 3:00. Waiting in the troff, we were super excited and hoping we had a leading bag for day one. We were finally called to the stage for day one weigh in. "They have a limit of bass, biggest bag of the day, 23.15 lbs" said Jon Stewart. I told Jon to weigh the one big one l got. It was 5.8 pounds which held day one and day two to take big fish for the highschool teams. WE WERE PUMPED! Our big bag didnt hold overall for the seniors, but it held for the highschool teams who we were competing against. But we were both ok with our bag, as Team Ontario's Doug Brownridge weighed in at 24.2 pound bag to get biggest bag of the day for the seniors. A huge shoutout to Doug who finished first place overall with a 3 day total with 72.9 Pounds, and is now moving on to the nationals in Connecticut. Congrats Doug! Our day 2, and the seniors day 3 tournament fish was the last day. The high school teams fished the thursday/friday, and the seniors fished wednesday/thursday/friday. Danny, myself and our coach/boater, Tony Chimirri were hoping we could duplicate what we did during pre fish and day one to take the win. It was a very tough day for us. There were a lot of unfortunate mistakes throughout the day and we only had 2 fish up until the last 2 minutes of the tournament. We pretty much called "last cast" as we were about a half hour run away from weigh-in. Danny was throwing a spinnerbait and I was throwing a jerkbait. All of a sudden with the last 2 minutes of day 2, a school of 4 fish followed my jerkbait and sat right below the boat in about 8 feet of water. They were big! I dropped my jerkbait rod, picked up a tube and threw it about 10 feet in front of them. This is when both of our hearts really started pumping... with only 2 fish in the well we were hoping to get at least one more. All l felt was dead weight, so l set the hook, Danny ran and grabbed the net, it jumps and Danny nets the 4 and change smallmouth bass. I quickly ran to the back of the boat, put it in the live well and jumped back up to the front. There were still 3 fish sitting there. Danny goes to cast and his line gets all tangled, so l toss in again and another one! Unfortunately I lost the fish.. But we were lucky to get that last one to bump us up another 4 pounds. On the run back to the weigh-in, we were both pretty nervous, because we only had 3 fish in the live well, but we were both hoping they were the right ones! We were one of the first high school teams to weigh in. We ended up with just over 12 pounds to give us a total 2 day weight of 36 pounds 10 ounces to take the win at the B.A.S.S Nation Eastern Divisional High School Championship. What a feeling, a feeling we will never forget. Thanks to our teachers and principal, Mr. Joly at St. Stephens Secondary Highschool in Bowmanville, for allowing us to miss school to attend the event. And we once again must thank, our parents, the guys and girls from Port Perry Bassmasters, Team Ontario (third place over all), President, Paul Kroisenbrunner, Laurie Charlebois, team manager, Doug Ferguson, youth director and last but not least, our awesome coach and boater Tony Chimirri. Cooper Gallant ><> WATCH FULL VIDEO HERE -B.A.S.S Eastern Divisional - HIGHSCHOOL