It will look a little different this year, but the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship (FFCBC) will hit the waters in 2021.
The FFCBC committee began reaching out the the larger fishing community in the past few weeks to see if there was enough interest to hold some version of the popular fishing tournament, and board member Greg Gustafson said the response so far has been very encouraging.
“It’s been good, really good,” Gustafson said.
“I’ve had three or four calls today already and teams sending me entry info. The response has been really good.”
According to Gustafson, so far between 30 and 40 teams have expressed their interest or registered for the tournament which is scheduled to run from July 22 to 24, albeit in modified form. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty surrounding restrictions on in-person gatherings and the ongoing Canada-U.S. border closure, this year’s tournament will forego the usual celebrations under the big tent – along with the big tent itself.
“There isn’t anywhere near as much planning going into this [year’s tournament],” Gustafson explained.
“We’re not going to have the big tent going up, we won’t have a bar under the tent, and there will unfortunately be no Wednesday night teen dance, no Quest for the Best or a band on Saturday because there won’t be a tent. It will strictly be a weigh-in, with a lot less people involved. From what I’ve heard from other tournaments, they go rather quickly and everybody’s really enjoyed them.”
The fact that other areas have successfully pulled off a modified tournament has encouraged the local committee to give it a go themselves, especially as Gustafson said he feels that lots of area fishermen are antsy and looking for ways to get back on the lake to take part in a good few days of competition fishing, even if the pomp and circumstance surrounding the event is diminished.
“We just wanted to throw it out there to get going just to see what the feedback was, because we were quite certain with all the tournaments that did go ahead on a smaller scale last year ours wouldn’t have any problem doing the same thing, just having a dock weigh-in,” he explained.
“One fisherman pulls up with his bag of fish, takes it to the weighmaster and gets his weigh scale and away they go with the weigh slip. People have been inquiring. Unfortunately a lot of Americans are too, they’ve been asking about the border and we can’t tell them anything, we don’t know any more than they do. But things have been going really good, so we’re just trying to get organized. It’s only four months away already.”
The reduced capacity for the event, such as not having a bar, or concerts or any other of the public entertainment means that the need for volunteers for this year’s tournament won’t be as high as years past. However, Gustafson noted the tournament will still be a good one for fishing teams, as the entry fee has been dropped to $500 and all of the proceeds will be returned by way of prize money.
“We’re going to keep it to three days because guys are used to that and most of them are looking to do it for something to do,” he said.
“We’re going to change the payout a little bit so we have three daily prizes; first, second, third, fourth and fifth is, I think, what we’re going for. So there’s hope for anybody to win some money on any one of the three days.”
Gustafson said he’s optimistic that with the reduced entry fee and the amount of time left to register that the tournament this year will see a comparable number of teams to previous years, which will continue to help push the prizes available to be won higher and higher. Anyone interested in throwing their hat into the ring for this year’s Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship need only contact Gustafson at 275-9589 or 274-9461. Registration forms can also be found on the championships website at https://www.canadianbass.com.
