For Immediate Release: Today the Aurora Bassmasters are proud to release and distribute a report on their Lake Simcoe Bass Tagging Research Project . This report was written by Steven Kerr (retired MNRF biologist and renowned science report writer) with assistance from Wil Wegman (conservation director for Aurora Bassmasters club). It summarizes the results of a five year (2006 – 2010) cooperative research project involving the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) and the Aurora Bassmasters. This project helped determine characteristics of bass (Micropterus spp.)  angled during eighteen different competitive fishing events on Lake Simcoe and or Lake Couchiching. These catch and release tournaments were comprised of smaller Bassmaster club tournaments, larger one day open events and even the three day Eastern Division B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Championship in 2009.

Many of the who’s who of the Canadian sportfishing industry gathered at the International Centre in Mississauga this morning for the induction of the latest member in the Canadian Angler Hall of Fame. As well, the Rick Amsbury Award of Excellence and the Conservation Project of the Year honour were presented. All three awards are presented annually in conjunction with the popular Spring Fishing and Boat Show.

This year’s Hall of Fame inductee was 57-year-old Wil Wegman, a tireless champion of fisheries conservation and recreational angling. “Wil literally lives fishing, from dawn till dusk, practically every day of the year,” said Outdoor Canada’s Patrick Walsh, who had the honour of introducing Wegman during the annual Industry and Conservation Breakfast. (For more on Wegman, see the full transcript of Walsh’s remarks, below. Also, please visit www.wilwegman.com.)

Story and photo courtesy of Patrick Walsh - editor of Outdoor Canada Magazine

For more visit Outdoor Canada: http://www.outdoorcanada.ca/HOF2017

Unlike today, fishing was not a priority for the general population during World War II. The rationing of goods, including the gas and oil needed for recreational fishing, was far more important to Americans than wetting a line.  

During wartime, however, innumerable lures of all shapes and sizes were being invented in the minds of military men and women who yearned to be casting and catching fish stateside. And in the years following the war, many of those baits were created, but most didn't have what it took to actually bring bites.

Plano, IL (December 2, 2014) - Big breakthroughs in fishing these days are as rare as a bona fide 3-pound crappie. In many ways, flippin' for bass - a tactic first exposed when Dee Thomas won the 1975 B.A.S.S. Arkansas Invitational on Bull Shoals Lake - mirrors straight lining - a progressive ice fishing presentation developed by Frabill and its pioneering frontman, Brian "Bro" Brosdahl.