“You need 16 pounds to win.”
Those words ran through Derek Strub’s mind along with thoughts of his dad and childhood fishing trips as he nervously waited to see his five bass weighed at the Kingston Canadian Open of Fishing, Canada’s premier bass tournament. He thought he had more than that weight, but, as he said in an interview a few days later, until the scale tips, an angler is never sure exactly what he’s got or where he will finish.
He was the last person to be weighed in. The three day tournament is a pro-am, which means professional anglers fish with a different amateur partner for three days. The pros were competing for a $40,000 first place prize; the amateurs for $20,000 in prize merchandise. The weigh-in is a ceremonial part of the tournament. People crowd around the stage to watch it.
On the first day, Strub was 21st, with 18 pounds for five smallmouth bass. A spectacular second day, 23 pounds, saw him leap into first. The top ten anglers are on stage for the final weigh-in on the last day, starting with tenth place, and down to the second day leader.
Strub’s total that last day was 20.04 pounds – and he won the tournament he has been chasing for years. He had top ten finishes in it and won many other tournaments, but the Open had always eluded him. It took a four pound average fish to win. Strub noted a three pound average had the angler 15th, and a two pound average was 60th – out of 80 boats. Only the top 20 anglers win cash, and 20th might cover the entry fee.
Strub grew up in Elora and started fishing at a young age – “probably since I could walk.” His dad, William, took him camping and fishing on weekends all summer and, “I’ve been fishing as long as I can remember. Spring and fall, we did Thornbury. We camped all summer. We were always fishing. That’s what we did.”
Looking back at those days with his dad, Strub said, “I don’t think I appreciated it at the time – but down the road I sure did.”
They chased fish from camps and weekdays Strub got on his bike and fished brook trout streams around Elora. The Strubs also chased “a lot of walleye and a lot of bass.”
What his dad did in those early years set him on his life’s course. He attended Centre Wellington District Secondary School and headed to Sir Sandford Fleming College, near Lindsay, known for years for sending graduates to work at the Ministry of Natural Resources. Strub studied Parks, Recreation and Forestry there. In summers, he worked at Elora Gorge Park. Then he worked for the GRCA part time, and a year later he was hired on full time.
At school, Strub met his first bass partner, Dean McFadden. “We started fishing out of a souped-up canoe in the Scugog River. We got the bass bug,” Strub remembered.
They heard about a bass tournament and finished fourth – in the money – and, “I’ve been fishing tournaments ever since.”
Winning cash immediately put them on their way for the next 10 years, but they learned it would not be a cinch. “At our first tournament, we thought, ‘This is easy.’ The next four tournaments, we did nothing at all. We realized then it was not easy to catch fish on cue. We took our lumps. We got more experienced at it.”
Strub and McFadden fished together for 10 years, a long time for such a partnership. Meanwhile, he was working his way up to Park Superintendent at the GRCA’s Belwood Lake, while McFadden was doing the same thing at the GRCA’s park at Conestogo Lake. After McFadden decided to step down from tournaments, Strub partnered with Al Patton, who now owns a fishing resort in British Columbia, and who has also won the Open. Soon after that partnership started, tournaments adopted a format where pros fished with amateurs.
In his last day at the Canadian Open, Strub fished with Stuart Naylor, of Hamilton, who won the amateur side of the tournament and the $20,000 worth of boats and hardware.
“I think I made a friend for life,” Strub said with a smile.
They used tube jigs and drop shots for their successful final day.
During those days of pro-am, occasionally there were team tournaments available to the pros, and Strub was surprised and pleased to be asked to join Bob Izumi, a fishing legend who has been hosting his own TV show for years and is known all over Canada as a top bass angler.
Izumi also invited Strub onto his TV show, which blew him away and, more importantly, in tournaments, they finished no lower than third in their first half dozen, giving them a good feeling about the partnership.
Izumi said of Strub, “Derek is one of the best smallmouth anglers in the country. I really enjoy fishing team tournaments with him because we are both very competitive … it’s kind of funny as we both feel we should be the captain of the boat, which makes an interesting chemistry.
“The real key to our success as a team has been that we both are very analytical in our approach, as well as we push each other to do well.”
Strub was honoured to fish with Izumi. “It was a career highlight when he asked me,” he said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”
Tournament fishing
“You don’t start at the top,” is how Strub described reaching the high end of his sport.
He remembers the first thing he did after graduation was to buy a small pick-up, boat and motor. Then he began fishing in regional bass tournaments. They are different than derbies. In derbies, the biggest fish wins – which means anyone can get lucky – including first-time anglers. In a tournament, an angler has to be consistently good over two or three days. Luck has little to do with it. The biggest fish counts only its weight; the angler with many consistently good catches is the one winning money in a sport that costs a good deal.
Strub said getting started by entering regional events like the Canadian Bass Anglers Federation allows people without boats to compete. Entry fees range from about $100 to $150. He said such events are “scattered all over. You can fish all summer without a boat in club events,” he said.
Then there is the serious side – the one successful regional anglers strive for – such as the Kingston Canadian Open of Fishing. It runs three days, but anglers like Strub “practised” seven to ten days prior to the start. That means heavy costs, starting with a $1,000 entry fee, hotels and meals, plus time off work. Anglers burn between $100 and $200 a day in gas during practice and the tournament. Sponsorship is crucial. Boats are worth thousands of dollars, and motors are more. Strub uses Hummingbird, which he calls the best fish and structure finder. It has satellite technology. He has a 22-foot walleye boat, and credited it with with helping him win the tournament.
On the last two days, he was well out onto Lake Ontario fishing in waves six to eight feet high. A lot of smaller bass boats could not withstand those conditions. He gambled he knew where the big fish were, and that he could catch them. Top anglers also have top tanks for holding the catch – to protect the fish.
When they reach five fish and catch another, the smallest one goes back, and the larger one goes into a climate controlled tank. The fish are released unharmed after the weigh-ins – and Strub said there are severe penalties for injured or dead fish. Anglers handle them as gently as possible.
Strub personally rigs 20 to 25 fishing rods for each day of the tournament. If a lure gets wonky, or a tube jig gets tattered, he can change rods without having to waste time tying on lures. Time is money.
“At the upper end, it’s very expensive fishing,” he admitted. “People are fishing with the best boats money can buy. You invest, so you can buy the best you can get.”
He explained practising.
“We’re not really ‘practising.’ We’re looking for areas where the bass live – where the big fish school. We’re putting together a plan for three days of competition.”
That includes figuring weather conditions and which sites will be best in heat, high winds or low winds, rain or clouds. Strub estimated that he fished at 40 of his practice locations during the tournament. He had 150 to choose from when he set out every morning at 7am. The tournament ends every day at 3pm sharp, and it is a pound a minute penalty for being late to the dock.
“Being late is not an option,” he said.
Bass Pro
Having reached the elite of the sport several years ago, Strub has many sponsors and also lots of promotional work besides his work at Belwood Lake. Carstar, the collision service, is his biggest sponsor. Bass Pro Shops had him demonstrating new lures when it opened its huge store in Vaughn a few years ago. He is also sponsored by Shimano and Rapala.
He presents a number of fishing seminars every year, and he has a pair of top five finishes in American bass tournaments, which are extremely competitive. The U.S. invented the bass tournaments and there are major dollars involved there.
In the meantime, he is dealing with the aftermath of his latest win. A friend of his sent emails to dozens of media outlets and Strub had hundreds of phone messages and emails waiting for him when he returned with the title.
He said the $40,000 first prize will come in handy. He said he and his wife, Jen, had been planning an addition to their Elora home. He also thanked his family for tremendous support over the years. He spends a lot of time away from home and such support is crucial.
Of course, the season isn’t over yet. There are still a number of events coming in the rest of the summer and fall, keeping bass anglers busy chasing fish and prizes on the bass trail; all of them waiting to hear those weigh-in words, “You need … ”
