Lucas Punkari
Anyone who’s set foot outside during the current heat wave baking Rainy River District knows it doesn’t take long before you’re dripping with sweat and looking for the nearest place to cool down.
However, if you’re an angler pre-fishing for the annual Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championships, which gets underway tomorrow morning, you’ve had to find a few different ways to deal with the sweltering conditions.
“You end up taking a lot of swims, and I think I took 10 swims [Monday],” Mike Wilson said before hitting Rainy Lake again yesterday morning.
“It’s hot out but I can deal with it, and I guess it’s better than a day at work,” smiled Wilson, who is teaming up with his dad, Leroy.
“We’re drinking lots of water, and I think we’ve gone through at least five litres in each of the days we have been out here,” noted Troy Lindner, who is fishing with his dad, Al.
“That’s helping us a lot, along with light breathable clothing that is keeping us covered up. And we are using lots of sunscreen, as well.
“Hopefully, the hot weather is not going to affect the anglers too much, and hopefully they are keeping healthy and hydrated out there so that we don’t see them having any problems,” Lindner added.
“All I can tell you is that I love it,” Al Lindner enthused.
“Even it it’s like 92 or 95 degrees [Fahrenheit] out there, it wouldn’t bother me in the least,” he reasoned.
As of press time, the forecast was calling for sunny skies Thursday and Friday, with temperatures hovering around 26 degrees Celsius (upper 70s F).
However, things may change on the tournament’s final day Saturday, as there’s an 80 percent chance of light rain with temperatures dropping down to 22 C.
“I really hope the weather changes actually, and that it gets overcast with some storms rolling through, because I think that is going to change the bite a lot,” said Mike Wilson.
“And in our case, it will really help us out.
“When it’s hot, clear, sunny, and calm out, the fish are a bit more spooked and you have move back and do more long casts,” Wilson explained.
“But when it’s overcast with bad weather, the fish are a little more at ease so it makes things a little easier.
“We just fished Lake Despair [in the ‘Castin’ for Cash’ tournament] a couple of weeks ago, and on the first day it was really hot out and we didn’t so good,” he recalled.
“But on the second day, it was overcast and stormy early on, and we caught a lot more [fish].
“Personally, I’m more of a bad weather fisherman,” Wilson added. “And while a lot of guys don’t like that, I’m really hoping for that to happen.”
For the most part, the anglers have been pleased with how their tournament pre-fishing has gone up to this point, with many of them talking about the high temperatures they are seeing out on Rainy Lake.
“Traditionally, the hot weather is good for bass fishing on Rainy Lake,” Jeff Gustafson noted following pre-fishing Monday.
“But I’m almost concerned now that it’s getting almost too hot out,” he admitted.
“The water temperatures today were in the 80s [F] and I’ve never seen that here before.
“I didn’t go quite as good the last two days, but overall the fishing has been pretty good and I expect to see some pretty good catches this weekend,” added Gustafson, who once again is teaming up with John Peterson for the FFCBC.
“It took us about four days to figure out some kind of pattern as it was really slow out there before the heat wave started to hit,” explained Dorese Harrison, who is fishing with her husband, Roger.
“Maybe things will start to even out and hopefully the fish will decide they want to bite when it’s hot out,” she added.
But with the temperatures staying hot, and the pre-fishing going quite well for most anglers thus far, many of the competitors expect to see some big weights when the fish start hitting the scales tomorrow afternoon.
“A number of people that we are talking to are finding a lot of fish, and there are a few guys at the motel we are staying at that are having 40-fish days,” noted Mike Teigen, who is fishing with his son, Ryan.
“With the caliber of anglers that are out here, I expect to see some pretty big bags out there,” he added.
“I think you are going to see one of the better tournaments with the depth of weights,” agreed Al Lindner.
“And that won’t be just at the top, either, which is going to see big totals no matter what happens,” he stressed.
“But the depth of the fish that will be biting will mean that it’s going be really close for many positions going down the table.”
In fact, there even has been some talk about teams breaking the FFCBC’s three-day total weight record—a whopping 58.62-pound total caught by Jim Moynagh and Joe Thrun back in 1998.
“I think with what you are seeing so far, it’s setting up the possibility of a three-day total weight of 60 pounds,” Troy Lindner said.
“I’m not sure if you can get up that high,” countered his dad, Al.
“But the potential is there for this to be the chance there has ever been to get up close to that mark,” he predicted.
