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Ice Fishing for Bass with Gord Pyzer
One of the most heated debates any hard water angler can have is whether or not smallmouth bass should be targeted through the ice during winter months. If we rewind a few years ago, many of us wouldn’t haveeven hesitated to fish for bass through the ice, but today that is a much different story.
One of the most heated debates any hard water angler can have is whether or not smallmouth bass should be targeted through the ice during winter months. If we rewind a few years ago, many of us wouldn’t haveeven hesitated to fish for bass through the ice, but today that is a much different story.
The Manitoba Bass Anglers recently had the opportunity to sit down with Gord Pyzer who had worked as a senior manager with Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources for thirty years. Known in a lot of fishing circles as Dr. Pyzer, he has knowledge and insight into bass biology that not a lot of us have.
Q: Do you fish for bass during the winter months, Gord?
A: No, I don't. There are plenty of other species I fish for during hardwater season.
Q: Why is it so harmful to catch bass in the winter?
A: Most anglers know about what happens to the swim bladder (Barotrauma) – It balloons and pushes the stomach out of their mouth, creates pressure on vital organs and inhibits the ability to swim to the bottom which is dangerous on its own. What happens internally in the bass is even more detrimental and anglers never see it as the fish swims away and appears healthy. Nitrogen enters the blood vessels, they hemorrhage, the eggs and testes are bruised and damaged and the fish expend energy that is critical for them to survive during the starvation period of winter.
Q: What is different between fall and winter fishing for bass?
Gord Pyzer Senior Manager — Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources
During the fall months you catch the bass out on the tops of humps or hanging just off the sides typically in 23-28 feet of water (1 atmosphere of pressure is equivalent to approximately 34 feet) and this is less harmful to fish so long you released them immediately and do not move them. It’s when the ice forms and those fish slide off the edges of that structure down to the bottom, in typically much deeper water, where the rock meets the mud that they stay until spring (Typically more than 1 atmosphere deep).
Q: Your official stance is that we should not ice fish for bass, but is there any way that an angler can help mitigate the damage done to bass during winter months?
A: Dr. Mark Ridgway is a good friend and heads up the ONMR Harkness Research Laboratory in Algonquin Park. As Mark always says, "there are no redeeming qualities ice fishing for bass or targeting them when they are spawning." If you catch one by accident in the winter the key is to immediately release it. As I mentioned previously, much of the damage caused by barotrauma isn’t the visual swim bladder, it’s internal. The blood vessels, egg sacs and testes can hemorrhage and rupture, it’s the nitrogen being forced into the blood and the blindness in their eyes. You can’t mitigate this once it happens. And never forget, only one third of northern range male bass spawn in the spring and those fish were predetermined last summer. So if they're gone come spring, nothing will replace them.
Even though bass may be the one species we are all overly passionate about, perhaps fishing for them in winter is not the greatest idea. There are some amazing facts and statistics that can point to a fishery and species being successful in constantly producing world class fish. Any one who watches competitive tournament bass fishing will know the names Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie, Lake Simcoe, the eastern end of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. They produce mind-blowing, massive bags year after year. And guess what, they are the only locations on Earth where they close the bass fishing during the winter months and the spawn on the Canadian side where all of those bags come from. Coincidence…? That’s up for you to decide. Gord had a closing statement that is daunting on many levels – “You get the fishery that you deserve”. It appears that in this case, unfortunately, the few can ruin it for the many.
Bryan Gustafson - BASS Opens
Everyone around Winnipeg and Kenora is familiar with the name, Bryan Gustafson. He is the owner of Lake Of The Woods Sports Headquarters and a successful Bass Tournament Angler in this area with numerous pieces of hardware to prove it. Bryan supports us here at The Manitoba Bass Anglers by not only sponsoring the club, but also by having the best high-end tackle selection in both Kenora and Winnipeg. I had the pleasure of talking with Bryan recently at his store in Winnipeg before he left in the new year to start on his new adventure south to compete in the BASS Opens.
Bryan Gustafson and Breanne Becker at LOTW Sports Headquarters.
PART ONE
Everyone around Winnipeg and Kenora is familiar with the name, Bryan Gustafson. He is the owner of Lake Of The Woods Sports Headquarters and a successful Bass Tournament Angler in this area with numerous pieces of hardware to prove it. Bryan supports us here at The Manitoba Bass Anglers by not only sponsoring the club, but also by having the best high-end tackle selection in both Kenora and Winnipeg. I had the pleasure of talking with Bryan recently at his store in Winnipeg before he left in the new year to start on his new adventure south to compete in the BASS Opens.
Q: Bryan, you're fishing the Southeastern Opens this year for BASS do you have an end goal?
A: The opens are unique because you can do a lot of different things. You can make money –if that's what you're wanting– if you win you get to fish the Classic, and if you finish top 4 in points you're in the Elite Series. I'm not gonna put a label on it, no pressure.
Q: Ten years ago you fished the Ever Start series (FLW) what can you take away from fishing those events?
A: Experience. Everyone gets better when they get older, wiser maybe. Not gonna make the same mistakes as I did in my younger years. I cashed quite a few cheques down there, but I had a lot of bad and bubble finishes. I had big first days followed by not even getting a limit on the second day. I did that a lot. That's something I'm looking to correct you know, change the way I do it. I was usually around the bass and I didn't have any bad practices and never really felt out of the loop going in to tournament day. Now when I go down there, I am not twenty years old anymore I don't have anything to prove, and have nothing to lose. I just think it's not a big deal and I'm not putting the same kind of pressure on myself as I did early on in my tournaments.
The time line for the tournaments in the FLW Southeast series was the best for me because the tournaments were between January to April. They were all close to each other in time and it fit because I guided up here, had a small tackle company and competed in all the tournaments locally here, it just worked well for me.
By the time you’re reading this article, Bryan will have already begun his 2020 BASS Opens preparations and is hopefully slingin’ six pounders in the boat putting together a winning pattern. Stay tuned for the rest of the interview questions!
PART TWO
So, now that we know that Bryan is going into these series of tournaments as cool as a cucumber what else is there to know? Let’s start with which lakes he’s jacked to go fish as well as his favourite fishing rod. The Eastern series tournaments begin in the Kissimmee chain of lakes in Florida mid January. It then turns north to Cherokee Lake in Tennessee during spring, and then on to Oneida lake in New York during the dog days of summer. The final tournament and the culmination of the Eastern division points race and Elite Series berth assignments will take place on Lake Hartwell in South Carolina.
Q: Bryan. which lake are you most looking forward to fishing?
A: I'm looking forward to Cherokee Lake in Tennesee. I've never heard of it before and never fished it. After doing some research both FLW and BASS went there in the past couple years, it sets up similarly to Lake of the Woods so obviously that would be a something good.
I'm also looking forward to Lake Oneida in New York, it seems that the northern guys always do well on this lake and Cayuga (sister lake). They have big Smallmouth and Largemouth, similar to what we have here.
Q: Favourite Bass – Smallmouth or Largemouth?
A: I am pretty impartial, whatever weighs more!
Q: If you could only take one rod into the boat with you – What would it be?
A: G-Loomis 893 Jig & Worm casting Rod – 7'5” Medium Heavy – You can do anything you need to do with that rod except maybe flip a big weight. If you're looking for one rod to do everything, this is it.
Bryan at Kenora Bass International
PART THREE
One of the things about fishing any series of tournaments is that it will likely take you to waters that you have never fished before. It’s a tough challenge because you’re basically relying on experience, knowledge and intuition to guide you to the big bass water. Unlike the Elite series there is a different set of rules for pre-fishing on the tournament lakes so there will likely be anglers taking advantage of that.
Q: Never having been to any of these lakes, when you get down there, where do you start in breaking down the water?
A: The nice thing about starting in Florida is historically the tournament is won by fishing offshore grass, similar to what we do here in the fall. So, I'll likely throw Chatterbaits, Rattle Traps or flipping baits around spawning areas.
The Florida thing is more or less being in the right place at the right time when they pull up. Unlike here in Lake Of The Woods, the males there are really small, and the females are really big. Timing will be key along with making the right location adjustments not so much the right baits.
Q: Anyone you wanna give a shout out to?
A: I would like to say thanks to Breanne Becker and Jeff Gustafson for setting this up – You couldn't just go sign up and it's pretty cool that they did this for me. I'm looking forward to just putting some rods down on the deck and go have some fun!
Our next set of questions will actually discuss Bryan’s thoughts on the Major League of Fishing style of tournament vs. the B.A.S.S. style of tournament.
Bryan Gustafson and Dustin Byfuglien on the Water
PART FOUR
In recent years one of the biggest stories to come out of bass fishing is the addition of a new format to tournament fishing. Nearly all of the anglers from the Elites moved over to Major League of Fishing and with it a new format. There are a lot of opinions out there on it, and we asked Bryan what his were!
Q: MLF OR BASS?
A: MLF has some really great things going for it, releasing the fish right after you catch it at the boat is a good thing, we've seen the impact regarding moving fish around on Lake Of The Woods and Rainy Lake. I'm not a big fan of (catch as many as you can) type formats it almost takes a bit of prestige out of catching the 5 biggest bass. I liked MLF a lot as a TV show, but now that it's a series I can't say I'm drinking the Kool-Aid yet, but I'm not opposed to it. You can't judge something in its first year of inception, you have to give it some time.
BASS has been around forever, they were the first tournament series and they have it figured out. Any progress for the sport of bass fishing is good – It's a really small industry and we shouldn't have to be just one or the other.
Q: Any sponsors you'd like to thank?
A: Humminbird/Minnkota has stepped up big for me as well as my store (Lake of The Woods Sports Headquarters) but mostly it's going to be on me and my American Express card!
There will be no easy roads for Bryan down in the Southeast Division as he will be up against some of the best sticks bass fishing has to offer. Bryan is a class act and a great guy and will undoubtedly make his mark on the tournament circuit this time around! The Manitoba Bass Anglers and I would like to wish him the best of luck in his endeavours and hope that whatever happens while fishing down there, he has a lot of fun doing it!
Swindle and Palaniuk return to B.A.S.S. Elites
As I sit here sipping on my coffee reflecting on the past years fishing industry I can't help but wonder what's in store for 2020. Brandon Palaniuk and Gerald Swindle announced their return to compete in the Elite series for B.A.S.S. If you could read between the lines, both anglers are returning for the same reason, the love of the brand. They are being welcomed back to the Elites through what is called the legends exemption. Basically, any angler who has won the Toyota Angler of the year, or the Bassmaster Classic is eligible to qualify.
As I sit here sipping on my coffee reflecting on the past years fishing industry I can't help but wonder what's in store for 2020. Brandon Palaniuk and Gerald Swindle announced their return to compete in the Elite series for B.A.S.S. If you could read between the lines, both anglers are returning for the same reason, the love of the brand. They are being welcomed back to the Elites through what is called the legends exemption. Basically, any angler who has won the Toyota Angler of the year, or the Bassmaster Classic is eligible to qualify.
Gerald Swindle gave a healthy insight between the two leagues “I’ve spent most of my adult life learning how to fish a five-bass limit and manage fish and the different related techniques. So I want to continue that learning process.” The five bass limit is something that has been a staple in bass fishing since the beginning of tournaments. The MLF has taken a slightly different approach to fishing where it has a mix of weigh-in styles, but largely weigh all fish toward a total day weight.
Brandon Palaniuk had this to say about the switch “You could say I spent 23 years of my life, or 72 percent of it, living and breathing B.A.S.S. I underestimated how much all of those struggles, chasing my dreams and sleeping in the ‘Tundra Suites,’ contributed to my happiness and that the brand itself was such an important part of my life, I didn't feel complete without it. So, I'm back with a full heart and love for the game.”
Both of these anglers are super good sticks in the competitive bass world and will instantly become anglers who will become crowd favourites. Being a big fan of local stick Jeff Gustafson, this means more and better competition for him moving forward. Bring it on! You can only be the best if you compete against the best! As a fan of the tournament circuit I wonder if this is just the beginning of the changes, will more anglers defect out of the Major League of Fishing?
