Lucas Punkari
It’s a fishing tale that will be hard to believe for years to come—even for those who were on hand at the Ice For Kids Arena here Saturday evening.
The 2011 edition of the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship ended up being an historic one as co-champs were crowned for the first time in the 17-year history of the tournament.
Richard Rud and Jon Austin of International Falls, along with the Thunder Bay-based tandem of Glenn Leroux and Trevor Zimak, both finished the three-day tournament with an identical total weight of 52.42 pounds.
That, in turn, led to a lengthy meeting behind the stage to determine how the situation would be resolved.
The official rules of the tournament state that in the event of a tie for first place, it would be broken with an one-hour fish-off.
But given the rough conditions out on Rainy Lake and a steering issue for the Leroux and Zimak boat, that option was deemed out of the question.
The next way to break up the tie was to have a coin flip, but neither team would have any part of that, so it was decided that all four anglers would hoist the FFCBC trophy.
“We are both fine with it,” said Austin, who has fished with Rud in the FFCBC for the last five years.
“Both of us fished hard for three days, and I think both of us felt that we deserved to be champions.
“We are both content with being co-champions and it really works out the best,” Austin stressed.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” echoed Leroux, who was in his second FFCBC with Zimak.
“You don’t want to see one team lose out over a coin toss, so we might as well share the wealth with the winnings and the prestige that goes along with that,” he reasoned.
Entering Day 3 in fifth place, Rud and Austin brought in a five-fish haul of 19.10 pounds, which was the biggest total caught that day and enough to take the lead away from Lauren Ras and Chuck Olson.
“We were just hoping to put five [bass] into the boat, come in with 12-15 pounds and not embarrass ourselves,” Rud chuckled.
“When we got up this morning and saw the wind ripping like it was with the cold temperature, our strategy was to hopefully get five fish, plain and simple,” agree Austin.
“I actually caught a fish on my first cast of the day, and it just never stopped from there.
“We kind of kept saying ‘this is a crazy day.’ And while we certainly didn’t expect to take the lead, it was a nice a surprise,” Austin smiled.
The next team to come up on stage was Leroux and Zimak, who had entered the day in fourth place but soon found themselves sharing the hot seat with the International Falls duo with a 17.71-pound catch, which was the second best haul of Day 3.
“We were just glad not to be under the other guys,” Zimak noted.
“The worst thing you can do is to lose by a 100th of a pound, so we were both just happy to tie,” Leroux added.
With all four anglers sitting on the hot seat, the co-leaders could only watch as the final three teams—Mark Raveling/Mike Luhman, Joe Thrun/Ben Miller, and tournament leaders Darren Ward and Sean Good—rolled into the arena to show off their catches.
But when none of those teams could knock the co-leaders off their perch, the tie for the tournament title was assured.
“With those guys and those names behind us, we didn’t think what we had was going to be enough to hold up,” Zimak admitted.
“Raveling is a phenomenal guy and he’s so consistent, and there’s not much else you can say about Joe as he’s won here five times.
“When we saw that they didn’t have the weight, we were both just shocked to stay up in the lead,” Zimak added.
Raveling and Luhman ended up finishing in third place with 49.96 pounds, with Ras and Olson (47.59) and Jeff Gustafson and John Peterson rounding out the top five.
Rounding out the top 10 were Bill Sentor/Brian Durham (45.79), Ward/Good (45.71), Scott Bonnema/Mark Fisher (43.30), Thrun/Miller (41.72), and Vince Godbout/Ron Tucker (37.64).
With the new tournament format this year, two other winners were crowned Saturday in the second and third divisions, which consisted of teams that were outside of the championship flight (i.e., the top 10 after Day 2).
The second division was won by Tony Holenko and Larry Foss of International Falls, with a 17.30-pound haul on Day 3, while the third division was taken by defending champs Dorian Lindholm and Bill Wilcox, who caught 17.61 pounds on the final day.
The biggest fish of the tournament was a 4.91-pound lunker caught by Bonnema and Fisher on Day 1.
