For the last two years, Shane Beckett has been the voice of the weigh-ins at the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship, getting to interact with all of the teams at the end of each of the three days of fishing.
His voice was well known because he has announced lineups at hockey games for a while beforehand.
“My son was in Atom hockey and we went to a tournament in Brezzy Point, in the States and they were all little kids but they did the announcement of the starting lineups for each game,” Beckett said. “Steph Wrolstad looked at me and said ‘hey we could do something like that.’”
When the parents started running home tournaments Beckett ended up called on to do those intros. That has given way to doing more intros at hockey games for the Muskie teams as well.
Two years ago when the Bass Championship was making its rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic the previous MC was not able to resume the job. Beckett says he wasn’t the first choice but he accepted the job anyway.
“The way it ended up happening is that somebody couldn’t do it then someone else, someone else, and they went to Mel Williams (of Party Rock DJ Services) and she committed, then had to drop out at the last minute,” Beckett said. “So she said ‘hey can I put your name in?’ I said yeah, sure, I guess whatever. It wasn’t like they sought me out, I think I was the last resort.”
Despite being the last choice two years ago, Beckett was asked back again in 2023 and will be back up on stage again this year as each team of anglers brings their fish across the stage.
Beckett also now lends his voice to calling play by play for the live streams of Fort Frances Lakers games on SIJHL.TV and this year he also was the MC for the Emo Walleye Classic.
When it comes to chatting with the anglers as they bring their fish to the weighmaster, Beckett says it can be tough to coax a conversation out of them after a long day on the water.
“I just try to open up with ‘how was the water’ or ‘how was the fishing’ right? I can get a pretty good gauge from there whether they want to talk or not,” Beckett said. “After the first day, you pretty much know who’s going to be a talker and which person on the team is gonna want to get on the mic.”
One angler that Beckett says stands out is pro circuit fisherman and Times columnist Jeff ‘Gussy’ Gustafson.
“He’s such a professional,” Beckett said. “He knows if you’ve got a five-minute gap behind him and I need to fill time or if there’s someone coming right up behind them and he can make it quick, so he’s really easy to work with on the mic because he gets it, because he’s done it so many times.”
Another struggle Beckett added can be the crowd size early in the tournament.
“Thursday afternoon, there’s not a whole lot of people in there, then you have to remember that people are trickling in and out,” he said. “Not everybody’s in there for the full couple of hours that we’re doing the weigh-in so you’ve got to gauge that too so you can keep going over the leaderboard, going over the sponsors because at any moment someone’s new to the tent.”
As for moments he’s enjoyed, one of the highlights he recounted was when Jeff Gustafson came in the big tent in the top-10 on the heels of winning the Bassmaster Classic last year.
“It was pretty cool last year when Jeff Gustafson was coming up and he had just won the Bassmasster,” Beckett said. “That’s a pretty cool thing to be able to call… having him there and the crowd goes crazy for him, that’s something that stands out.”
But then there’s the hometown crowd cheering for their friends and family as well.
“I always love the locals,” he said. “The Wielingas, for instance, I made the joke last year that we had a world championship bass fisherman, but when the Wielingas get up there and flash their smiles they get louder cheers than Gustafson does, so that’s always cool, the support for the local people.”
Shane Beckett will be back as weigh-ins host under the big tent again this year bringing everyone comments from the anglers.
Weigh-ins start at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 3 p.m. on Saturday.
