Duo eager to win FFCBC

They’re not here to lose, they’ve come to win—or at least make it inside the big tent for the final weigh-in a week from Saturday.
No other result will be good enough for Ted Krause and Brent Lake in this year’s Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship, which runs next Thursday through Saturday (July 22-24) at the Sorting Gap Marina.
No other process of thinking will enter their heads. They want to hear their names called over the speakers in the tent come Saturday of the tournament. They need to hear their names because if they don’t, then they just face another year of waiting.
“We’re here to win and that’s it,” Lake, of Faribault, Mn., said Thursday evening from Unit #102 at the Rainbow Motel here.
“Every year you obviously want to win, but you want to make it to that tent,” said Krause, referring to how the top 10 teams are paraded in for the final weigh-in.
“When that rock and roll music is playing and people are watching you and you hear your names called, there’s nothing like it,” he added.
Krause and Lake are seeded 24th in this year’s FFCBC. Their best placing was an 18th-place finish in their first try together in 1998, but ironically they had their best results when they weren’t partners.
Lake, when he was partnered with his father, Gary, a former FFCBC champion, placed third in 1999 and ninth in 2000. Krause also finished well in 2000, placing fifth with Jimmy Bell.
“There were a couple of years he couldn’t stand me so he let me go,” Lake joked.
“We’ve fished quite a few years together so we know each other pretty well. How long as it been, Brent?” asked Krause.
“I don’t know. A whole bunch anyway,” Lake replied.
“It was back when I was married and that was a short miserable period of my life,” laughed Krause.
The pair, who figure they’ve known each other for some 10 years, are competitive at heart, but always mix business with pleasure by lightening the mood with laughter—with Lake playing the role of lead prankster.
“There are no two years the same out in these waters. You have no idea what to prepare for so what you do is prepare for everything,” remarked Krause.
“I prepare with yoga and I meditate for a while,” said Lake. “I do it while wearing a pink leotard.”
“That’s when I leave,” Krause, the team captain, retorted with a laugh. “He is a sick, sick man. That’s why we have a 21-foot boat so I can get distance between us.”
The log homes seller (Krause) and the sporting goods owner (Lake) were preparing their rods for Friday’s pre-fishing as both arrived in town Thursday. They spoke of the magnitude of the tournament.
“For us this is it. This is the one tournament that we look at for the whole year,” said Krause.
“Every hour to hour is different on that lake,” he added. “In a minute, they could shut off and not be there and then the next minute they could be there and not want to bite.
“You can have the best day one day and then the next not even catch a fish,” Krause remarked.
The two, who believe a total weight of 50-55 pounds easily would put a team in the top 10, talked about the differences they’ve seen from the start of the FFCBC to now.
“When the tournament first started, if you got 15 pounds [for one day] you were a hero and people were crawling all over you,” said Lake.
“Yeah, people would just be like, ‘Wow, what are those guys doing?’” added Krause.
“Now, 15 pounds is nothing,” added Lake. “There is no room to stumble in this tournament. The guys are just too good and too consistent.
“In a lot of other tournaments, if you have a bad day you can still make it up with a big bag the next day, but not here,” he reflected.
And that pressure already might be getting to Lake, who had problems with his $400 St. Croix rod as he tried to get it ready for Friday’s pre-fishing.
“You’ve got the line under the skirting of the reel,” noted Krause.
“Oh, no. No,” replied Lake.
“We’ve got problems, we’ve got bad problems,” laughed Krause.
Lake returned to Krause 10 minutes to find out if he had fixed the problem.
“It did it again,” said Krause.
“No. Don’t tell me that. You’re joking?” said Lake.
“No, I’m serious, it did it again,” responded Krause.
“Please no. No,” Lake said.
It’s still early yet, but clearly the countdown to next Thursday morning already has begun.
(Fort Frances Daily Bulletin)