WELLINGTON COUNTY – Local fishermen David Pol of Arthur and Derek Cushing of Salem are making their dreams come true as the duo prepares to represent Canada at the 2024 Bass Master Team Championship later this year in Louisiana.
“If you have a dream, pursue it, because we had a dream to do this and it was hard to do but we are doing it,” said Cushing.
Pol and Cushing began fishing competitively as a team just three years ago and have since competed in tournaments across Ontario.
While both have been fishing their entire lives, Cushing has been fishing competitively for over 30 years.
“We’ve always fished; he’s fished more tournament style than I have,” said Pol.
“I’ve fished competitively now for over 30 years, I’ve fished since … I was in diapers,” added Cushing.
The Bass Master Team Championship is held by Bass Pro Shops and will take place on the Ouachita River in Monroe, Louisiana from Dec. 4 to 7.
Bass Masters is the largest bass fishing tournament series in the world, with countries such as Italy, Germany, and Canada all competing.
To qualify for the tournament teams must compete in other Bass tournaments throughout the season and gather as many points as possible. Points are awarded based on the accumulative weight of the set number of fish the team has caught.
“We are typically only keeping five of them (fish),” said Cushing.
“We have two live tanks on the boat (tanks that circulate water keeping the fish alive) and we just keep swapping them out for bigger fish as we catch them.”
Teams are then ranked from heaviest catch to lightest catch with first place receiving 100 points, second place receiving 99 points and so on.
Teams with the most points at the end of the season can qualify for the championship.
“Only nine teams from our division are going down as part of Team Canada,” said Cushing. “And there were over 300 teams try and qualify.”
The championship tournament will be held in the same fashion as the qualifying tournaments and will only allow teams to keep up to five live fish.
Day one of the competition will see all teams battle it out on the river, while day two will feature only the top three teams, and the teams will be broken up and placed on separate boats to fish individually.
The winning duo will win a cash prize of $25,000 and lead the charge into the Classic Fish-Off on Dec. 6 to 7 for the grand prize, which includes an all-expenses paid trip to the Bass Master Classic – the world’s largest bass tournament next March.
“It’s really the elite of the elite fishermen in the world,” Cushing told the Advertiser.
The duo attempted to compete in last year’s Bass Master Team Championship but missed the cut by only a few points.
“We competed to go to the team championship, but we were not successful last year,” said Pol.
However, the team is beaming with confidence this year, as both Pol and Cushing feel they have an advantage over the competition.
“I’m not nervous,” said Pol. “I think it’s going to be to our advantage because the water down in Louisiana is more Derek and my style of fishing.”
Pol says the water is shallow and murky, and successful fishermen will have to rely on their instincts if they want to win.
“Can you imagine, the announcers going to announce, ‘Here comes Dave Pol and Derek Cushing, Team Canada,’” said Cushing.
“They’re going to announce everyone’s name and where they’re from. We’re going to have chills doing it.”
The competition will be broadcast live by ESPN Dec. 4 to 7 and on the Bass Master website at bassmaster.com.
