Mitch Calvert
The monkey is off their backs.
Ted and Louise Stewner hauled in a bag of 19.50 pounds on the final day of the LaBelle’s Rainy Lake Fall Bass Classic on Sunday to capture their first title fishing together as a couple.
He had won back-to-back crowns with Al Carlson at this tournament in 2002 and ’03, and most recently in ’06 with John Guzej, but this was the first one for the two together since getting married.
The couple finished a close second by less than half-a-pound last year.
Last year’s champs, Alex and Darrell Keszler, were leading after Day 1 on Saturday but came in with just a 16.64-pound bag on Sunday to finish with 37.34 pounds overall—good for second to the Stewners’ 38.18-pound winning catch.
“Yeah, we were worried about the Keszlers,” Ted Stewner said about the wait leading up to the Keszlers’ final weigh-in. “They catch a lot of big fish and we didn’t know if we had it or not.”
Bill Senter and Brian Durham came third with a 37.08-pound total, followed by Chad and Gerry Hanson in fourth (35.98). Mike and Sandy Salvador rounded out the top five (35.62).
“Well, we lost one today, and it would’ve been the biggest fish I think I would’ve ever weighed in,” Mike Salvador told tournament emcee Paul Morrison during the final weigh-in.
“That would’ve been the killer right there.”
The Stewners admitted they weren’t filling the boat with fish throughout the day, but ran into some big fish on one spot and it made all the difference.
“We had one big flurry, really,” he noted. “We caught three big fish off the one spot and that’s what did it for us.”
The pair also caught the tournament big fish at 5.16 pounds on Sunday, which gave them some much-needed poundage to hold off the Keszlers and avoid another runner-up finish.
“We hung around that same spot a bit longer and then caught the five-pounder, so that spot was great,” Louise Stewner enthused. “I was up on the edge of the boat with the net and saw it come up to the surface and went ‘whoa,’ and just made sure I netted it quick and got it in the boat.”
The overall weights were down from past years throughout the field—with the Keszlers being the only team to weigh in a bag topping 20 pounds (20.70 on Day 1). That seemed to be a common trend at bass tournaments throughout the district this year.
“I can’t explain it, but things are really, really different this year,” Kent Ballan said after he and brother, Steve, weighed in on Sunday. “Considering the way the weekend has gone across the board, we are happy with how we did [21st place with 27.80 pounds].”
Dave Bennett, who finished in 35th position with Caleb Colwell (23.40), had much of the same response to the lack of big bass this year.
“There’s plenty of big walleye out there, but the big bass just aren’t there,” he remarked. “Caleb caught a 12-pound walleye so that was neat to see, anyway.”
Normally this tournament, hosted at LaBelle’s Birch Point Camp on Northwest Bay, yields some monster bass because they are now feeding up for the winter. But despite some high totals on top of the leaderboard, no team got close to eclipsing the Keszlers tournament-winning total of 39.56 pounds from last September.
But, hey, at least the weather was milder.
“I was looking at last year’s pictures and I had a big fur cap, on so it was a lot nicer out there, which was a nice change,” Louise Stewner laughed.
Finishing sixth through 15th were Scott Ourada and John Allen (34.28), Terry Gill and Reuben Gibbons (33.92), Jeff Gustafson and Joe Thrun (33.92), John Guzej and Rick Loeb (33.56), Frank and Terry McClymont (33.42), Vince Godbout and Ron Tucker (32.78), Wayne and Dean Howard (31.06), Pat Cross and LeRoy Wilson (30.80), Steve Mattson and Gordon Fothergill (30.18), and Phil and Thatcher Haggberg (30.02).
The Salvadors had the big fish on Day 1 at 4.92 pounds.
In total, 1,301.26 pounds of bass were caught over the two-day
tourney.
