Saturday May 20th saw the start to the OKBT 2023 season up on Lake Nipissing presented by Power-Pole. This is the second year the OKBT has had an early season event and on another new lake to the series. Nipissing is a beautiful lake with an abundance of water and structure to fish. Definitely worth the trip. At least the 136 registered thought so.
As this was the opening day of the season no one really knew what to expect. Add to that the expected weather forecast of rain and it looked like it was going to be a tough day. Well the weather man didn’t lie this time and rain it did….some may say torrential rain and some may say they even saw Noah getting his arc ready for another trip. But regardless of the weather, 136 anglers took to the lake to try and get the win at the first event of the year. With another record event attendance this was sure going to be a battle and a big payday for someone.
The morning started off slowly but the bass started to show up on the leaderboard. Mark Tavares, David Sidea and Ryan Tyler were playing around at the top of the leaderboard for a good part of the morning. A late day surge by Ian Hodgkins put him in the lead when the leaderboard went dark. When the final standings were revealed it was Ian holding onto the win with 90.50”. Davis Sidea with 89.50” took second and Ryan Tyle took third place with 85.50”. Ryan also took home Big Bass with a beauty of a 21.00 smallmouth. Even though the weather was rough, the anglers went out and persevered through it all. That’s dedication to the sport for sure.
1st Place – Ian Hodgkins – 90.50″
2nd Place – David Sidea – 89.50:
3rd Place – Ryan Tyler – 85.50″
Big Bass – Ryan Tyler – 21.00′
The lake Nipissing event was presented by Power Pole and up for grabs was a complete power pole micro unit, battery and spike. Warren Ridout was the lucky angler that took home that sweet prize pack.
A big thanks goes out to the Lavigne Community Center for their hospitality at the awards. And as always thank you to all the sponsors of the OKBT for making these events what they are.