Joey Payeur
It certainly was a sweet 16 for an 11-year-old, with the sweetest catch of all proving to be a winning one.
Davis Wielinga of Fort Frances and his older teammate, Shane Wepruk, claimed the first Safeway Pro-Am Fishing Tournament title Sunday at the Sorting Gap Marina.
Wielinga showed commendable honesty in admitting it was his partner who reeled in the winning fish of 3.52 pounds in the reconfigured event that used to be known as “Kid-Pro” before going on hiatus at last year’s Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship.
It returned this year as an all-ages-welcome affair.
“We caught about 16 fish during the day,” noted Wielinga.
“But when [Wepruk] brought that one in, we thought it might be the winning fish,” he added.
The pair edged the tandem of amateur Noah Paleczny and pro Phil Bangert, who finished second at 2.95 pounds.
Wielinga was grateful for the chance to team up with Wepruk and go after his favourite angling target.
“I enjoy bass fishing the most because it has more action,” explained Wielinga, whose name will go on the same trophy that previously went to the “Kid-Pro” champs.
“Shane was really good at showing me things like how to use a hair jig,” he added.
“I definitely want to try this again next year.”
Wepruk was one of seven anglers entered in this week’s FFCBC that volunteered to spend quality time on the water with the nine entrants (two boats carried two youth apiece).
“I’ve done [the ‘Kid-Pro’] almost every year I’ve participated in the FFCBC,” he noted.
“It’s a small way to give back to the community and to help promote the future of the sport to young anglers,” added Wepruk, who was grateful for the support of Safeway in sponsoring the event.
“Davis was outstanding and we had a lot of fun out there,” Wepruk said.
“He caught some and it was a good opportunity to get a young kid hooked on fishing.”
Wepruk wasn’t too concerned about the low turnout of tournament anglers to help out with the event.
“It didn’t run last year,” he noted. “But now that’s it back up and running, it’s all about making the tournament more of a community event.
“Without local people, events like this don’t happen,” he stressed.
“I don’t want to throw the other pros under the bus,” said Wepruk. “It’s all about awareness and possibly a lot of them didn’t know about the pro-am for whatever reason.
“You miss a year and people think the event is done.
“But we’re going to try and make sure at this year’s rules meeting before the [FFCBC] tournament that we let them know this is still happening,” he remarked.
“I know a lot of guys who would like to do it and, when given the opportunity, will be glad to take the kids out and want them to learn about bass fishing.”
Christian Wiedenhoeft, 11, paired up with pro Rick Cooper to land in third place (2.86).
“It was a lot of fun,” said Wiedenhoeft, whose smile was even brighter than his neon green T-shirt he wore for his fishing excursion.
“I’ve been looking forward to it for a while and it was amazing when my mom told me I got picked for it.
“Rick was great to fish with,” Wiedenhoeft added. “The conversation with him in the boat was pretty much as good as the fishing.”
Wiedenhoeft’s only regret was that the pro-am wasn’t an all-species format.
“We caught a huge northern pike that wouldn’t have even fit in the net,” he recalled.
“It was easily a 10-pounder,” Wiedenhoeft said. “We would have won, for sure.”
Coming in fourth was Jesse Marschalk and pro Ray Watson (2.05) while Ethan Lengyel teamed with Rick Socholotuk to place fifth (2.00).
Jaxon Gartzke and Duane Cridland nabbed sixth place (1.91).
Dennis Stromness’ boat contained a pair of novice anglers in Gaige Dyke (seventh, 1.82) and Brayden Sabbe (ninth, 0.90).
In between them was the duo of Connor Belluz and Ray Watson in eighth place (1.08).
