Joey Payeur
Instead of being drenched in early-morning rain, Oliver Gibbins and Mike Gate were realizing some early-morning pain Saturday.
And their instincts proved correct as the pair, hailing from Morson and Nestor Falls, respectively, were unable to hold onto their lead after Day 2 at the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship.
Instead, they had to settle for second place with a total haul of 52.49 pounds to finish 2.84 back of repeat champions Troy Norman (Fort Frances) and Jay Samsal (Kenora).
“By 9:30 a.m., we knew something was going on,” said Gibbins, who was trying to become the first person to win the Emo Walleye Classic and the FFCBC in the same year.
“We had to scrounge to get everything we got [Saturday],” he noted.
“I’m proud of our finish,” Gibbins added. “I would have loved to have gone back-to-back in Emo and the Fort.”
The duo didn’t waste any time either of the first two days letting the crowd under the big tent at the Sorting Gap Marina know they meant business.
They sat in third on Day 1 after being the third team on the stage with a mark of 18.27, then vaulted into first at 37.85 with a monster bag of 19.58 after being first to weigh in on Friday.
“We targeted some big fish last week and they bit when we went back there during the tournament,” noted Gate, who has teamed with Gibbins for four years at the FFCBC.
“This was the first year where we had a good solid effort in pre-fishing and it paid off.”
Gate, meanwhile, liked what he saw at this year’s tournament in terms of the health of the FFCBC going forward.
“What I see in the level of community involvement is it’s so huge and look at the people in the tent–young kids to older guys,” he remarked.
“The volunteers make this tournament what it is and they need to keep Paul Morrison as the emcee,” Gate added.
“He’s the backbone of the tournament and is a good face to be up there on stage, although normally he’s pretty lazy,” he joked.
The pair also both tipped their hats to their conquerors.
“Those guys know their stuff,” Gate said of Norman and Samsal.
“Hats off to them,” echoed Gibbins. “We’ve been doing battle with them for years.”
