Joey Payeur
Collecting $5,600 for three days of fishing would put most people in a pretty jovial mood.
But when someone has grabbed the brass ring twice before at an event and had a firm belief a third title was for the taking, the smiles tend to be somewhat narrower.
Devlin’s Bill Godin and teammate Leroy Wilson from International Falls had the biggest fish and the biggest one-day haul throughout all of this past weekend’s 2016 Kenora Bass International.
But both of those achievements were only good enough to push the pair into seventh place in the 125-team field of the three-day tournament with a total combined weight of 46.92 pounds.
Keewatin’s Adam Bachynski and Andrew Beernaert emerged victorious with a championship-worthy amount of 51.57 to be the only team to bust through the 50-pound barrier and come in almost exactly 2.5 pounds ahead of runners-up Dave Bennett (Sioux Narrows) and Mark Libitka (Kenora) at 49.08.
“We didn’t get off to a good start,” conceded Godin, who was the highest-finishing angler from the Rainy River District, about an opening mark of 11.56.
“We had issues with our boat on Day 1 and couldn’t get to our fish,” he continued.
“So we fished a couple of spots and we were back in early to get our boat looked at.
“Throw in the wind and it was pretty rough out there. With the wind, we couldn’t fish at our usual spots because the water was too dirty.
“Day 1 was a write-off,” summarized Godin.
“It’s pretty disappointing.”
Godin and Wilson were back on their game on Day 2, reeling in 17.09 to vault up the standings before everything fell into place on Day 3 on Saturday.
The duo snagged the largest bag of the tournament by anyone with a total of 18.27, punctuated by the big fish of the tourney at 4.94 which was brought in via unprecedented fashion for Godin.
“Leroy got his big one on the line and I missed it the first time with the net,” he chuckled.
“The next time it came back around, I got him and happened to get another one right behind him.
“I’d never done that before,” laughed the KBI champion along with Wilson from 2009 and 2013.
The two will team up for the reborn Morson Bass Classic on Aug. 19-20 before Godin matches up with his Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship partner in Kenora’s Dave Lindsay for the International Falls Bass Classic the following weekend.
Two other top 20 teams with local ties included the Fort’s Troy Norman and Kenora partner Jay Samsal, this year’s FFCBC champions, who ended up 12th (46.05) and the Fort’s Brandon Kamm and Keewatin’s John Frost in 18th (44.99).
Fort native Bryan Gustafson and Kenora’s Jamie Bruce landed in 24th (44.00).
On the celebrity side of things, Winnipeg Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien (Long Lake, Mn.) and teammate Mark Peters (St. Francis, Mn.) couldn’t keep up their Day 1 momentum when they were third and concluded the weekend in 22nd (44.13).
As for NHL free agent veteran Mike Richards, the former Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers forward joined forces with fellow Kenora native Trevor Socholotuk worked their way up the leaderboard after a forgettable Day 1 to come in 43rd (40.61).
