Jeff Vipond

I recently had an opportunity to go on a day trip to fish a section of the Mattagami River known as the Lower Sturgeon with an angler named Jeff Vipond.

During the day, I learned that Jeff was born in a small northern community called Smooth Rock Falls.

In 1985, Jeff’s father was transferred to Timmins.

Growing up Jeff would accompany his father, who is a avid angler, on most of his outings.

During this time they would fish several different water bodies such as Pierre Lake, Little and Big Abitibi Lake, Zinger Lake, McQuiban Lake for Lake Trout and Lower Sturgeon.

Jeff recalls, as a youth in the early 1990s, a friend’s father, Jack Scalabrini, would drive his son Mark, himself and any other friends that would happen to be joining them out to Kenogamissi Lake and drop them off at the cottage for a couple of days of fishing and camping.

On one of these trips Jeff recalls Mark being the first one to own a bait caster.

After watching Bob Izumi on television casting jerk baits with a bait caster, John Labine wanted to try it out.

John wound up for his first cast with the bait caster and a five-inch Rapala crank bait but things didn’t go as he expected.

Not only did they learn about what a backlash was, the crank bait swung around catching Jeff in the back of the head.

With the momentum of the cast, Jeff recalls the instant numbness he felt as two of the treble hooks penetrated into the back of his head where the adjustment holes were for his ball cap.

This, of course, resulted in a trip to the hospital to remove the hooks.

In 1991, Jeff and his friend Mark Salabrini, both 15 years old then, entered their first Kiwanis Club tournament on the Mattagami River.

This tournament was an all species two-day live-release event in which they fished out of Jeff’s fathers twelve-foot aluminum boat with a 8hp Suzuki outboard.

Going into Day 2, sitting in four places, they managed to catch a quick limit of six fish before hitting a rock, which resulted in a broken shear pin in the outboard, ending their day.

All was not lost; though, as they did end up finishing in ninth place overall.

That was when Jeff got bit by the tournament bug and he now participates in walleye tournaments regularly.

Since fishing in the walleye tournaments, Jeff has accumulated 13 Top-10 finishes, and several Top-20 placings, along with a fourth place finish in the NOWT Angler Of The Year standings in 2010.

When I asked Jeff why he fishes tournaments his reply was that it was a social gathering of fellow tournament anglers and to compete in a competition which he enjoys.

Over the years, Jeff told me that his biggest fishing supports while growing up were both his parents.

Today they still are among his biggest supports but Jeff says his wife Liane and two sons Joshua and Brody are also among his biggest supporters.

With a smile, Jeff told me that his son Joshua (six-years old) has fished in two Lund Angler/Young Angler Tournaments with him.
Over the years Jeff says that his father, Chris Vipond, Elmer Fisher, Mark Salabrini , John Labine and Mark Basaraba all played a role in his knowledge of fishing.

Jeff also enjoys trapping his own minnows and leeches when chasing walleyes.

His favorite techniques are jigging, bottom bouncing or with slip bobbers.

Walleye however aren’t the only fish Jeff enjoys persuing as splake and lake trout fishing are on the list as while.

Speaking about lake trout, one of Jeff’s most memorable fishing experiences came from an outing last year with Matt Browne on July 31.

On this trip they used their downriggers with spoons on a lake north of Cochrane.

Jeff told me they caught 36 lake trout in one day ranging from two to nine pounds.

After the trip Matt and fellow angler/friend Luc decided to make this an annual outing.

This year didn’t disappoint them either as they caught 30 lake trout ranging in the two- to 11-pound range.

I would like to thank Jeff for taking the time from his busy schedule of starting a new position at work and from his family.

When I asked him why he agreed to do this article he simply replied, because you’re a fellow tournament angler that I have great respect towards.

How humbling is that?