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Tracking Team Canada's Chase for Gold | The Fish'n Canada Show
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Mar 20, 2025
On this episode of The Fish'n Canada Show, our entire team tracks and documents some of the world’s best bass anglers as they compete for gold on New Brunswick’s Saint John River in the Pan Am Black Bass Championship. Canadian greats Bob Izumi, Jeff “Gussy” Gustafson, and Cooper Gallant (to name a few) fight for Team Canada and do battle with Team USA’s future bass legends Jacob Wheeler, Scott Martin, Joey Cifuentes, as well as young super-sticks Tyler Williams and Trey McKinney. Not to be outdone, teams from Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Turtle Island, China and the Wolastoqey First Nation are all in for the win. Great fishing and great drama throughout this event. CONNECT WITH US -------------------------------- ► WEBSITE http://fishncanada.com ► FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/FishnCanada/ ► INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/fishncanadaofficial/?hl=en ► TWITTER https://twitter.com/angeloviolafnc/ One of Canada's longest-running fishing shows, Fish'n Canada travels from coast to coast in search of trophy fishing opportunities. First started by brothers Angelo and Reno Viola in 1986, The Fish’n Canada Show has been on the air for over 30 years. Today, Angelo is joined by lifelong fishing buddy, Peter Bowman, and the pair continue to travel across Canada educating anglers using the experience they’ve gained over the years
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:09
[Music]
0:15
oh yeah
0:28
Mega the Canada show brought to you in
0:32
part by New Brunswick always
0:36
inviting Princecraft boats the spirit of
0:40
boating The Outdoor Journal Radio
0:43
podcast Network every Pursuit every
0:45
platform every day and Garmin tell a new
0:50
fish
0:50
[Music]
0:52
story fish Canada
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[Music]
1:06
hi folks this is going to be an exciting
1:09
episode we're coming to you from Nack
1:11
frederickton part of New Brunswick and
1:13
we're covering the Pan-American Black
1:16
Bass
1:17
Championship assembled behind us some of
1:19
the best Anglers on the planet as you
1:22
can see we're in the Bank of the St John
1:23
river which is one of the best small
1:25
mold Fisheries in Canada and they have
1:27
large mold here as well
1:30
[Music]
1:31
on this episode you won't see any gear
1:33
prep no map sessions no Fishing lodges
1:37
Heck on this show you won't even see
1:39
Pete or myself catch a fish on This
1:41
fishing Canada shoot we're traveling to
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the Eastern region of Canada and we're
1:45
covering a fishing tournament now I
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realize some of you are saying you guys
1:49
always travel to Canada's east coast and
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you've also covered tournaments in the
1:52
past and you're right this event however
1:55
is
1:56
different different indeed it's called
1:58
the Pan-American Black Bass Championship
2:01
this is a special kind of fishing
2:03
tournament which as the name implies has
2:06
an international
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component in this two-day event you'll
2:10
see some of the top competitors from
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Canada United States Mexico Dominican
2:15
Republic Puerto Rico Republic of
2:18
Columbia Turtle Island the Wallace tuque
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First Nations and even a contingency
2:23
representing China all compete for
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international bragging rights and The
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elusive gold medal
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in 2018 the Canadian International sport
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fishing Association or cisa was formed
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it's a nonprofit Canadian fishing
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organization that facilitates the
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ongoing participation of Team Canada
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fishing Duos in the Pan-American and
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World
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Championships the ultimate goal here is
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to achieve the inclusion of sport
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fishing in the Olympic games similar to
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the world Olympics these international
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events bring qualifying teams from
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participating countries together to
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compete for a chance to win the goal
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can you imagine including fishing in the
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Olympic Games all I can say is wow baby
3:07
wow the cisa had a serious task ahead of
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them when seeking a location for this
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2024 event that would represent fast
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fishing in Canada when looking into the
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Canadian Geographic range of the black
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bass AKA small Mo and large moou one
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would think it would be next to
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impossible to choose a best of the best
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location when setting up an
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International Tournament to name a few
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contenders Vancouver Island is scattered
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with smallmouth bass lakes and the Lower
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Mainland of BC has both Largemouth and
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small mouth Manitoba and Quebec have
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loads of untouched bass Lakes Ontario
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has the largest bass population in the
3:45
country and then there's New Brunswick
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bass in New Brunswick well if you're a
3:50
fan of the fishing Canada show then
3:52
you'll already know about the bass
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population there for those of you who've
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never experienced or heard of bass in NB
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you're going to today when an and I
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first discovered the population of
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smouth in New Brunswick we quickly
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figured out that this area of the
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country had something very special
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introducing the St John
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River we've produced a multitude of
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episodes over the years covering the
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diversity and significance of this
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incredible fishery but Today's Show is
4:19
all about bass Pete and I shot a couple
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of fishing canid episodes on the St John
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in 2016 and again in
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2023 and let me tell you right now it
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was burgeoning then and it's still
4:32
growing today it's the perfect choice
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for this event trust me catching fish
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will not be a problem here the city of
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frederickton in New Brunswick will be
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home based for this event it's ideal in
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not only infrastructure but a great
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location sitting on the bank of the bass
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Rich St John River with an estimated
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population of over 65,000 people this is
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the perfect location to have such a
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prestigious event
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as for the headquarters for takeoff and
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weigh-ins that'll take place just up the
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road in a quaint little town called
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newick we've visited here a few times
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now and we can honestly say it's one of
5:13
the friendliest areas we've been to in
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all of Canada
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[Music]
5:33
a typical fast tournament in Canada
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starts with a quick night before
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orientation meeting registration Etc
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followed by everyone splitting up and
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heading back to their
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accommodations this event is much
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different cisa Vice President Joe Ford
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and his team have gone above and beyond
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in setting up an opening ceremonies
5:50
event like no other Pete and I have
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known Joe for quite some time now and he
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told us boys I want to blow everybody's
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Minds with this opening ceremony and man
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mission
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accomplished from teams having their
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national anthem played through the PA
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system to a guest appearance by Pat
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roach AKA Randy from the Trailer Park
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Boys these guys hit this one right out
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of the park as in most competitive
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sporting events this PanAm tournament
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continues with orientation meetings
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registration individual and team photos
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and so on it's a great time for everyone
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involved to get reacquainted with their
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teammates as well as a friendly
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competitor's handshake to their
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opposition as all the hustle and bustle
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was taking place an and I had a chance
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to pull some of the higher profile angl
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aside for a few words all right the big
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moment is upon us folks I've got him
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here sitting next to me Gussy Canada's
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first and only bass master he's a world
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champion I don't care what what we want
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to call him congratulations on the win
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we haven't had a chance to talk face to
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face there's so many fish to be caught
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on this River you got to weed through so
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many to get Pounders sort of like the
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gold standard if you don't have any
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three Pounders in your bag you're not
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going to be near the you're not going to
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be where you want to be so it's going to
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be uh uh important to try to trick a few
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of those bigger fish and and put them in
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the boat it's an amazing place to fish I
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mean we we probably caught 70 or 80 bass
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yesterday I mean first time on the water
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but imagine that 70 or 80 bass if you
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want to get bites I mean I this is one
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of the best places I've ever bass fished
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in my life all right joining us now uh
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Scott Martin I don't think he needs a
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big introduction although I will tell
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you for those of you who might not know
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uh aside from television personality
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aside from tournament Superstar uh he's
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probably one of the hottest things on
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the internet both YouTube Instagram
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followers Galore welcome scatty I
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appreciate you having me here and I got
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to the river yesterday and I saw it saw
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the leaves and the water and man it was
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awesome and then today you know you get
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around all the other competitors and you
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see that same look in their eye I'm here
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to win I mean I mean yeah and and so it
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it's so make no mistake about it he's
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still here same feeling today and
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tomorrow and the next day as I do at an
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elite tournament that I would fish W
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everybody can relate to a gold medal
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everybody can relate to teams and
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countries competing in that format and
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so it's a great introduction to people
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around the world and companies for that
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matter to get excited about what we're
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doing how do you feel about uh your
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chances this year no we got to work
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cutout for us I mean you know it's uh it
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it's going to be a hard fought battle
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for sure I mean look at the end of the
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day we're fishing against the fish and I
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know you've heard that term before but
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all actuality that's what we're doing if
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we catch what we need to catch we win if
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we don't we
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don't with all of their pre- fishing
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done the media taken care of and all
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their tackle prepared this group of
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eager Anglers are ready to make that
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first cast of the event I remember these
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mornings from back in my Tournament
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Fishing days and Let Me Tell You Folks
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the nerves on these guys are off the RoR
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scale this is the time when mental
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toughness is a real
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asset so here we go the big moment it's
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blastoff time dropping that shifter into
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forward hearing your boat number called
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out hammering the throttle and skimming
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across the St John River then dropping
9:20
the trolling motor in and making that
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first cast of the day it's so damn
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exhilarating so by now those of you
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watching that aren't really up on the
9:30
fishing tournament scene are starting to
9:31
get this whole Derby on steroids concept
9:35
while those first in the competitive
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world are simply saying let's go show us
9:39
the
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fish now we've embedded some
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transmitters in some of the boats so
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that we can hopefully catch up with some
9:52
of these pros and catch in action some
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of these Pros are babaz Zumi Gussy
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Cooper Gant Jacob wheeler and Scott
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Martin these guys are good oh
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[Music]
10:04
baby we're hoping to run into these guys
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uh Team uh candada Captain Bob isumi and
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his partner Adam Foster uh team number
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four and we weren't sure whether we were
10:15
going to find him or not we had heard
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rumors they'd be up in this part of the
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lake and they are the odds on favorite
10:21
to win this Adam just won a tournament
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here in this area a couple of weeks ago
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and of course the legendary baboomi what
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what are you going to say about that
10:30
and we just saw a boat a a small fish
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they apparently have uh their limit in
10:34
the boat already and it's barely an hour
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and a half into the competition so
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that's that's fantastic and you can see
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behind me they're basically fishing a
10:42
really swampy Back Bay it looks like
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it's the end of this big long Cove that
10:47
comes in off the main river and they're
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fishing shallow I mean these fish right
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now even though he's scoping you see
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Adam on the front of the boat he's
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looking down at his uh at his unit so
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they're still
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visually uh using the uh forward- facing
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sonar even though they're in shallow
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water and they're probably at this point
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because they've got a boatload of fish
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already they might even be scoping for
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bigger fish than the small ones because
11:13
some of these really sophisticated units
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uh um are so good that you can actually
11:18
tell the difference between a 2 lb and a
11:20
4 lb fish so hopefully we'll uh see them
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Land one of their their big Keepers hey
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Bob can you hold up a couple of fish
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I love it when we get
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cooperation oh nice boys
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yeah Team Canada baby
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[Applause]
11:41
[Music]
11:54
[Music]
12:07
[Music]
12:13
[Music]
12:21
[Applause]
12:23
got biggest one yet nice three three
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dude that thing kicked my tail I have a
12:33
Dr kind of
12:35
light nice lot warm three three nice
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those are the those are the ones we
12:40
wanted GRE
12:45
yep great
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job this up to 12 and A2 yeah that fish
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was an important catch you know with
12:54
goal is 15 PBS and you know that was a
12:56
little over three so that helps bring
12:58
the average up we need two more like
13:00
that and we'll be talking business you
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know we've only been out here for two
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and a half hours so I feel like we're
13:04
right on track right where we need to be
13:06
we just came up on Jacob wheeler and his
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partner uh part of Team USA and uh
13:12
they're fishing this really interesting
13:14
looking Point here I wish I had have
13:16
found it myself uh this is one of the
13:18
winningest dudes in the US right now
13:21
he's a world champion bass fisherman and
13:23
even though this like you may think that
13:25
this is kind of completely different to
13:28
uh to Jacob he has fished so many
13:30
tournaments uh over the last few years
13:33
that putting patterns together even in a
13:36
body water he never fish before it's
13:38
really not that difficult uh bass or
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[Music]
13:46
Bass
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yeah means like 2 and a half
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he had it for so
14:08
long huh he's not like that big if he's
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2 pound if he's like less than 2 and a
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qu 230 yeah I wouldn't huh would you we
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put him on there and just blue if he
14:21
starts to go he starts to act
14:24
weird got one good one feels like a
14:27
decent one
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oh yeah
14:33
Mega these fish here are so aggressive
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and so strong uh 3B fish probably fights
14:39
like a four or five PB round of St
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Lawrence
14:52
job we're calling out now we got a
14:54
really small limit uh we just picked up
14:56
a decent one probably close to three um
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we're just going to keep weeding through
15:00
them keep catching them and try to get
15:02
rid of everything in that side so there
15:04
we go team Columbia just got a little
15:06
small M there I'm in 11 ft of water
15:09
they're probably in 6 to 8 ft of water
15:11
right there it's a flat straight edge
15:13
and they're doing they're fishing top
15:14
water oh you just had another one I
15:16
think he just threw another one back
15:17
small one so um so they might be on to
15:19
something here it's cool I just love
15:22
seeing like Colombians coming up here
15:24
and fishing in the east coast of Canada
15:26
that is just that is awesome all right
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Let It
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Go where are those trees at I don't know
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uh way over here behind
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us oh my gosh bro this is a big giant
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get ready ready biggest one we've caught
15:47
all week
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son got her let's go that a bigon that's
15:53
a bigon right there Nick he's
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heavy yeah is
15:59
those jumps had me shake
16:02
kid biggest one of the
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week St John's river
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bass got
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one that was
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shallow it's
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good this place is just a factory as far
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as like numbers of fish good as anywhere
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um and if you want to come and catch
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them on top
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Waters pretty uh pretty awesome
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place
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there fight good fight for a small
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fish now get him
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in one there it's not big but at least
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we caught a fish in small big was
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that
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yeah top water
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L not very big but we don't need them
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right now so we
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I'm there's one
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there that's Bo almost three lbs
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probably over three this one here we you
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cut more like that we'll be doing
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good so we just came upon one of the
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Team USA boats Tyler Williams is one of
17:16
the new hot sticks in the bass circuit a
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very good live scoper you can see that's
17:21
what they're doing right now they're up
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in the front they're can out in deep
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water we're in 32 ft right now watch out
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for these guys
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[Music]
17:36
n come on you about to see this scoop up
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just like I'm probably going to goof
17:42
this up really
17:45
bad okay see I told you I saw one I saw
17:49
him I never doubted you bro never
17:52
doubted you I see him okay wow that's
17:55
actually a good
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one like a good and half we're at
18:02
270 got a G right back in
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the good job thank you use that big one
18:10
I said
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[Music]
18:16
okay today's Hotpot is one that many of
18:19
the teams hit throughout the PanAm event
18:21
on the St John River in New Brun the way
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point on your screen will get you there
18:25
this area turns into a large weed flat
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that runs parallel to the river bank
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the beauty of this spot is number one it
18:31
holds lots of smies and some of them are
18:33
good ones and two it's very close to the
18:36
boat ramps in Nack this makes it so easy
18:38
to access all small mou bass techniques
18:40
will work here from top water to mid-
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running jerk baits and crankbaits and
18:44
all the way to the bottom with jigs and
18:46
drop shot rigs with your favorite
18:47
Plastics trust us w we tell you the St
18:50
John River May well be the single best
18:52
body of water in all of Canada for small
18:54
MTH numbers for more hotspots like this
18:56
one check out fishing canada.com
19:04
[Music]
19:11
with all that one more cast behind us
19:14
it's time for day one weigh-in this is a
19:17
crucial moment in any fishing tournament
19:19
in that fish handling becomes ever so
19:22
important important in that the fish are
19:24
checked for their health are they alive
19:26
and well or are they not going to make
19:28
it which equates to a half PB penalty
19:30
from their total weight here every ounce
19:33
counts so fish handling and fish care is
19:37
critical here's an interesting tidbit
19:39
for you Jasper Jong from Team China just
19:43
put through the first ever largemouth
19:45
bass to be weighed in a professional
19:47
tournament in all of New Brunswick
19:50
congratulations Jasper now although
19:52
we're seeing the odd large Mo being
19:54
weighed in small MO is King in this part
19:56
of the world they've been here for a
19:58
long time and their numbers have
19:59
increased
20:01
dramatically to have a caliber of
20:03
fishing that draws the attendant of
20:04
worldclass Anglers like Jacob wheeler
20:06
Scott Martin Joey cifuentes Jeff Gussy
20:10
gustofson Cooper glant Bob isumi etc etc
20:14
you know this place has to be
20:16
good so when all was tallied up the top
20:20
three teams after day one of the 2024
20:23
PanAm Black Bass Championship in New
20:26
Brunswick Canada stands as in first
20:29
place is team 37 Tyler Williams and Trey
20:32
McKenna from Team USA with five bass
20:34
weighing
20:35
18.75 lbs in second place is team 39
20:40
Alec Morrison and Nick Hatfield also
20:43
from Team USA weighing in five bass at
20:55
17.46% 3 lb will teams keep up the
20:59
momentum tomorrow or will someone make a
21:02
charge from below tune in next week to
21:04
see the final
21:07
[Music]
21:14
results getting there brought to you by
21:16
The Outdoor Journal Radio podcast
21:20
Network to get to the PanAm blackbass
21:22
Championship we first took Highway 401
21:24
East crossing over the Quebec border
21:26
next we took Highway 20 to Highway 30
21:29
and eventually got back on to Highway 20
21:31
next we turned Southeast on Highway 85
21:33
which eventually turned to Highway 2
21:35
which finally took us to our
21:36
accomodations in frederickton the
21:37
capital city of New brunwick to get to
21:40
the tournament takeoff and weigh-in area
21:42
we took Highway 2 from frederickton
21:44
turned on to Route 102 then onto od's
21:46
drive and finally to the boat launch
21:48
area adjacent to the world's largest axe
21:51
in the town of Nack both frederickton
21:53
and Nack are located along the St John
21:55
River this portion of New Brunswick is
21:57
an excellent area to host a bass fishing
21:59
tournament because of the amount of
22:00
water available to be fished and the
22:02
Abundant bass population the town of
22:04
Nack has gone above and beyond in all
22:07
recent bass tournaments held in this
22:08
quaint little area bass fishing and
22:10
fishing in general is a huge boost to
22:12
their economy and the locals here get it
22:14
if you're looking for a stretch of water
22:16
to fish for a multitude of species then
22:18
the St John River from frederickton to
22:20
Nack is the place for
22:22
[Music]
22:25
you the fishing Canada show brought to
22:28
you You inart by yui fishing lures fish
22:32
the best Mercury El fors go
22:36
boldly and Outdoor Canada Canada's only
22:40
National fishing and hunting
22:42
magazine closed caping for this episode
22:45
is brought to you by fishing canada.com
22:48
the gateway to your next fishing
22:50
Adventure come Al to our cabin in the
22:54
wild cuz we're in for some good fish in
22:57
Canada
22:59
yes we're in for some good fishing
23:01
Canada
23:02
[Music]
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