Joey Payeur
Three days is how long the tournament lasts.
But the amount of time for the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship organizing committee to get everything in order on an annual basis is much larger than that.
That being said, Greg Gustafson, the FFCBC’s director of angler registration and chief financial office, said all the ducks are getting put in their rows.
“The tournament is coming together well,” Gustafson said about the 23rd-annual tourney, which is slated for July 20-22.
“We’ll really get things started [this] Friday when we put the big tent up [at the Sorting Gap Marina],” he added.
“It’s our seventh year together as a board of directors so we almost know what we’re doing,” he quipped.
Gustafson noted board members once again are handling various responsibilities due to the lack of available bodies to help stage the event.
“We’ve been picking people off the street and leaning on friends,” he remarked.
“It will all work out.”
A total of 84 teams had registered for this year’s tourney as of press time, down from 99 last year.
“We had 89 two years ago and 79 the year before that, so we were hoping we would keep increasing the number,” Gustafson said.
“We’re hoping to get at least five-10 more teams before the tournament and get closer to our original goal of 100,” he noted.
“Even if you show up at the rules meeting and you have the registration money, you’re in.”
Gustafson said the lower number may be attributed to the uncertain job schedules for some of the FFCBC’s regular anglers, which have them not knowing very much ahead of time whether they will have the days off needed to fish the tournament.
As for the quality of fishing to expect this year, Gustafson said he hadn’t heard much this year since he recently sold The Great Bear, where many anglers would wander through and share their Rainy Lake experiences with him.
“It’s pretty up in the air right now how it will go,” he indicated.
“It’s anyone’s game.”
Gustafson is optimistic about having good weather for the FFCBC and said the support of anglers from this area is helping strengthen the event.
“We’ve got a lot of young local guys getting involved, which brings out their family and friends and makes for a better time for everyone,” he reasoned.
While there will be no “Kid-Pro” tournament for the second time in three years due to the lack of available anglers being able to commit to it, there still will be a child-friendly vibe on site with the presence of bouncy castles for children to enjoy on the first two days of the tourney.
There also will be a change for the final day’s top 10 boat parade and weigh-ins as Shaw Cable was unavailable to broadcast the climactic final hour of the event.
But Gustafson said a plan to stream the final day’s action on Facebook is in the works.
When all is said and done, he hoped the community will come out and embrace the tournament as it usually has done in the past.
“There’s a lot of fun for everyone young and old, and I think the tournament has a good, healthy future,” Gustafson said.
“We’ve got lots of great sponsors and great people on board.
“Most people are pretty good and don’t mind pitching in if something needs to be done,” he added.
“I hope the tournament will carry on for a long time yet.”
