Lindners reel in first FFCBC title

The right combination of teammates finally did the trick for the Lindner family.
After several top-10 finishes matched up with other relatives, Minnesota siblings James and Bill Lindner put it all together to capture their first Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship on Saturday with a three-day total of 55.46 pounds.
“It’s been a workout,” James Lindner said with a grin on his face that portrayed his glee in not only reaching the top of the mountain, but taking home $31,000 in the process.
“Every year the quality of the guys that come to this tournament gets better and better.
“That’s not only including the ones from out of town, but the local fishermen, as well,” he added. “There’s a tremendous group of tournament anglers here.”
The Brainerd, Mn. resident gave himself an unforgettable present on his 44th birthday with the help of brother, Bill, from Baxter, Mn., as the pair used three consistent days of fishing to top the 136-team field, despite not having the tournament big fish nor big catch for any of the three days—a feat unmatched in FFCBC history.
The Lindners picked up $27,000 for their victory, plus a bonus $1,000 for being the top Lund/Mercury team, another $1,000 for being the best Lund team, yet another $1,000 for being the top MinnKota team, and a final $1,000 for being the top finishing team that participated in the Kid-Pro tournament on July 20.
The pair were in the hunt from the opening cast Thursday morning, sitting in second after Day 1 (19.02 pounds) and Day 2 (18.80) before coming through with 17.64 on Saturday to win by 2.7 pounds over John Guzej and Ted Stewner of Winnipeg.
When asked what he would do with his share of the money, James turned to his oldest daughter, Lindsay, and asked with a smile, “What do you want?”
The 13-year-old couldn’t hide her excitement at watching her father capture Northwestern Ontario’s most prestigious fishing crown.
“I’m really proud of him,” she said, with younger brother Nick, 10, and sister Jaden, seven, looking on. “He deserves it. He’s been in every one of these tournaments since they started.”
“He puts a lot of time into it,” chimed in Nick. “It’s really exciting that he finally won it.”
The pair have been painstakingly close to grabbing the brass ring throughout the nine years of the tourney.
James paired up with brother, Al, to finish second in 1995, fourth in 1998, and third in 2000. Bill and his dad, Ron, were third in 1995, eighth in 1996, seventh in 1997, fifth in 1998, and ninth in 1999.
“We found some big fish there in pre-fishing, and a lot of them,” Bill Lindner said about the pair’s chosen spot, which they generally stayed fairly close to the entire three days.
“We were bringing in 17 pounds every day just in pre-fishing,” he noted.
The Lindners not only used superior skill, but also an arsenal of high-tech equipment to zero in on Rainy Lake’s more sizable bass.
“We’re not going to fight against the new technology, so we might as well embrace it,” said Bill Lindner. “Guys who are really going to be players in the competitive fishing world have to be up on their technology.
“But then you’ve got guys like [Guzej and Stewner], who have no front trolling motor and no GPS system. And they’re still placing high in all the tournaments they enter,” he added.
Guzej and Stewner led the pack with 37.88 pounds after Day 2, but were relegated to second place with a total of 52.76 after hauling in only 14.88 on the final day Saturday.
“We decided to go for broke and went for a little run today,” said Stewner, who shared the second-place earnings of $15,000 with Guzej for their runner-up finish.
“The spots never panned out. But either you go for the win, or you don’t go for the win,” he reasoned.
The Littlefork, Mn. team of Ted Olson and Bob Hell steadily moved up the charts and ended up with a three-day mark of 52.38 pounds after bringing in 16.80 on the final day.
“We had a decent day, but we didn’t think we had enough to win,” said Hell, who went from seventh after Day 1 to fifth after Day 2 before finishing third to take home $10,000.
The Midwest duo of Scott Ourada (Little Suamico, Wis.) and John Allen (Green Bay, Wis.) reeled in 16.20 on Day 3 to finish with a total of 51.94 and cart off the fourth-place cheque worth $7,500.
Dave Lindsay (Sioux Narrows) and Colin Gluting (Winnipeg) tried to build off winning the Shoal Lake Bass Classic near Kenora three weeks ago, and produced another notable effort in finishing fifth at the FFCBC, collecting 51.74 pounds over three days to snare $5,000.
“We figured we needed 20 [pounds], or at least 19.5 today [Saturday],” said Lindsay, who finished Day 1 in ninth place despite being the 81st boat to launch that morning.
“A lot of the schools of fish we were finding, there would be one big one, and four or five little ones.”
Sixth place—and $4,500—went to Bernie Zutter of Chippewa Falls, Wis. and John Miller from Rice Lake, Wis., who brought in a total of 51.60 pounds over the three days.
The duo squeaked past the Minnesota pair of Scott Bonnema (Forest Lake) and Mark Fisher (Anoka), who impressive 18.42-pound catch Saturday had them in the lead until part way through the parade of the top 10 contenders.
Their final mark of 51.58 was good enough to earn them $4,000.
Conditions went from lightweight to lights out for John Janousek from Brainerd, Mn. and Chad Johnson of Crystal, Mn.
The partners shrugged off a difficult first day that found them in 86th place after only 11.46 pounds, before despair gave way to delight over the final two.
The pair burned up the water to haul in the tournament’s best one-day catch of 21.80 on Day 2, and for an encore, captured the biggest fish of the entire FFCBC on Day 3 with a 5.04-pounder.
Those accomplishments garnered Janousek and Johnson an extra $2,000 to go along with their earnings of $3,500 for eighth place. They also netted another $1,000 as the most improved team from the end of Day 1 to the conclusion of the tournament.
Fort Frances Times co-owner Don Cumming and partner Harry Bell won the Rendezvous Trail title as the top local team to tack another $1,000 onto the $3,000 they received for finishing ninth overall.
“We were very surprised teams like the Ballans [Steve and Kent], Doug McBride [with son Zack], and especially the Howards [Wayne and Dean] weren’t right in there,” said Cumming.
“Mostly, you just don’t want to get embarrassed and at least finish in the middle of the pack, and be presentable.”
Day 1 leaders Scott Cook and Jerry Millar from Winnipeg weren’t able to maintain their momentum Friday and Saturday.
The Manitoba connection piled up 19.40 pounds on Thursday, but dropped to 15.04 on Day 2 and just 14.42 on Day 3 to wind up with a three-day total of 48.86 and 10th place ($2,600).
The duo also claimed $1,000 for having the highest total of Day 1, and another $500 for splitting the big fish of Day 1 at 4.92 pounds with Larry Bollig (Ham Lake, Mn.) and Jim Merthan (Woodbury, Mn.)
Defending champs Norm Lindsay and Jess Swenson from Sioux Narrows couldn’t make up for a devastating Day 1 total of only 9.78 pounds, although they did end up moving from 110th place at the end of Thursday to 39th overall by Saturday.
“We started out too deep on the first day,” said Lindsay, who brought in 16.72 and 16.64 pounds on Friday and Saturday, respectively. “The last two days, all the catches we made were in shallow water.”
The three-time FFCBC champ, who holds more titles in the tournament than anybody since the event began in 1995, vowed jokingly to return in 2004 with a different approach.
“I’m not going to pre-fish as much next year,” laughed Lindsay.
Other separate prize winners included Allen Kobylka and Greg Goodridge of Keewatin, Ont., who reeled in Friday’s big fish of the day (4.90 pounds) to win $1,000, while Lee Erickson (Maplewood, Mn.) and Brian Hansen (Plymouth, Mn.) nabbed another $1,000 with Saturday’s best total catch of 18.88 pounds.
In the hidden weight competition, Greg Stahn from Devlin and Theo DeGroot of Emo were the Day 1 winners with a mark of 15.22, Frank and Terry McClymont of Kenora took the Day 2 crown with 11.80, and Doug and Zack McBride were closest on Day 3 with 6.20.
Each team earned $250.
The top rookie team was Gordon Fothergill and Kris Koski from Grand Rapids, Mn., who left the dock 128th on Thursday morning, but managed to move all the way up to 14th place by the end of Saturday (48.16) to win $1,000.
James (Burton) Grissom from Rock Island, Tn. and his partner, Pat Greene from McMinnville, Tn., suffered the cruel fate of finishing 91st overall—just falling short of receiving an automatic invitation to next year’s FFCBC.
But they didn’t go home empty-handed as they won the tournament’s first Didn’t Make the Cut, But award, along with $1,000.
The $1,000 winner for the lowest weight among 15 fish was not available at press time.
At the July 23 rules meeting, the awards were handed out for the previous evening’s Parade of Boats.
First place in the Best Presentation of Boat and Vehicle category went to Adolph Hamann of Princeton, Mn. and Jimmy Bell of Ham Lake, Mn., who won $500 for their efforts.
Second place went to Chip Leer of Walker, Mn. and Gord Ellis of Thunder Bay, who received $250.
In the Best Float division, Michael Gerstner and Tom Pearson from Fort Frances took top honours and $500 for their Peter Pan theme. The derby’s youngest team, Mark Kellar and Brian Christian from Fort Frances, finished in second ($250).
The participation winners, selected by random draw, included Norm Klopak of Winnipeg and teammate Albert Trudeau of Ile-des-Chenes, Man.; Paul Jewiss of Devlin and partner Dale Strachan from Emo; and Ted Krause of North Branch, Mn. and teammate Brent Lake from Faribault, Mn.