Lindner brothers dominate FFCBC

There may have been some doubt in their minds. They might even have questioned their chances.
But James and Bill Lindner remained confident. They were always confident. Confident in their ability. Confident in their skill. And confident that they would repeat as champions at the 10th-annual Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship.
And in the end, the Lindner brothers accomplished something only Jim Moynagh and Joe Thrun did at the FFCBC in 1998 and 1999, and win back-to-back championships in Canada’s largest fishing tournament.
“We stayed on the game plan and it worked like a charm. We didn’t really get a whole bunch of fish but the fish we got were the right ones,” said James Lindner, the captain of the team.
“This is a real tough tournament to win. The quality of anglers, the educational tools that they have and many other variables make it really difficult to win this,” Lindner said, who will split $50,000 of the first-place prize money with his brother.
Coming in second place were last year’s runner-up and this year’s crowd favourites in John Guzej and Ted Stewner, who amassed 50.04 pounds in total weight while the Lindner’s pulled in 53.82 pounds, and received a cheque for $20,000 in the process.
Last year Guzej and Stewner lost to the Lindner’s by 2.7 pounds but say that while their finish in this year’s tournament will be more difficult to accept than last year’s, they are still very pleased with their performance.
“It was pretty quiet in the boat today (Saturday),” said Guzej, whose team was leading after Day 2 and was 2.34 pounds ahead of the Lindners. “It was a tough bite for us. The wind swung around and that really hurt us.
“But we still could’ve won. We had the opportunity. We have so many people cheering for us, so it’s hard not to be real happy,” he added. “It’s pretty nice when everyone is on our side. I think everybody here wanted us to win.”
The Lindner’s saved their best fish for the last day as they brought in this year’s biggest one-day weight with 19.32 pounds as opposed to Guzej and Stewner’s 13.20 pounds.
“You can’t make a lot of mistakes. You can’t lose any fish. You have to put in a good game plan. And that’s the real key to it I guess,” said Lindner.
Coming in third was the father and son team from Winnipeg in Alex and Darrell Keszler, who shot up from 10th after Day 2, by bringing in 17.46 pounds on the last day, to give them their best finish ever at the FFCBC.
“There are no words for it, it’s just great,” said Alex Keszler. “This is as close to winning you can ever get because this event is so huge. Me and my son had a blast here. The town is so behind this tournament and in supporting the anglers.
“This is such a great feeling being here.”
Also doing well were local residents Guy Johnston and Doug Wright who with their eighth place finish, were the top local team in the 138-team field.
“I’m grinning from ear to ear,” said Johnston, who with a 16.48 pound bag on the last day, shot up from 29th place after the Day 2, which gave them their best finish ever in the FFCBC.
“I don’t know how else to put it. The fact that we finished so high and against that calibre of fisherman that are out there. It really feels great. And I’m just so happy right now.”
Wright was also quite pleased with his team’s performance.
“It’s been rather exhilarating. Personally I had a really off day with the fish yesterday (Friday) and we would’ve been going through the tent if I didn’t have such a bad day,” he remarked.
“It’s still hard to believe. We just stuck in our same area. We knew that the fish were their and they eventually turned on.”
Check out Wednesday’s Times for the complete results of this year’s FFCBC, as well as more photos and stories.