Back in the nineties, I spent considerable time fishing in Ontario. Because of the region's cool summers and countless lakes to explore, I always looked forward to the trip. Plus, there was another big draw—the Canadian Open.
Every year in July, the Canadian Open bass tournament was hosted by the city of Kingston, and it drew some of the biggest names in fishing. Anglers like Denny Brauer, Tom Mann Jr., Randall Romig, Jim Bitter, and many top Canadian pros too—one of whom was Bob Izumi, a guy who would ultimately become my lifelong friend.
Alabama pro Randy Howell may only be 38 years old, with his boyish face and slender build making him look even younger, but he’s a mature 38. A seasoned 38. An experienced 38. The upcoming Red River Bassmaster Classic will be his tenth entry in bass fishing’s biggest event and he’s hoping that big show experience and Red River lessons will allow him to break through with his first Classic win.
He’s had four tour-level shots at the Red and the results have been decidedly mixed. The best of the bunch was a 17th place finish in an FLW Tour event in 2000. He strung together strong but not stellar limits of 9-06 and 9-15 to achieve that result. At the following year’s FLW he bombed with 1-11 on the first day before coming back with 12-05 the next day, but it wasn’t enough to leap anywhere near the top of the leader board and he finished 79th overall. That same year on the BASS side he finished 36th in a field of 155.
One of the biggest pleasures behind ice fishing is the constant variety of fish available all from one hole.
In a previous article we talked about using sonar to graph water depth and fish activity anywhere on a lake. That fish activity, represented by inverted lines or fish symbols, means an angler has the chance of catching a wide variety of fish from any location on the water, too.
