Joey Payeur
Jason and Van Pavleck have been on opposite sides in several previous fishing tournaments.
But when circumstances brought the two family members from International Falls together in the same boat for the first time competitively, they were left to wonder why they didn’t try it before.
Hauling in the big fish of the tournament helped defending champ Jason and his dad capture the 2015 Rainy Lake Fall Bass Classic on Saturday at LaBelle’s Birch Point Camp.
Their three-fish haul of 12.74 pounds earned a total of $3,300.
With a 4.76-pounder whopper putting them over the top, the Pavlecks snuck into contention as the sixth-last team to weigh in out of the 35 that entered the tournament.
They nosed past the duo of Dan Tucker and Jason Cain from Fort Frances, who held the lead from the early stages of the weigh-in with a mark of 12.20 pounds before settling for second place.
“I was [Jason’s] second pick,” chuckled Van Pavleck about replacing his son’s winning partner from last year, Bill Senter, who was unable to attend this fall.
“We’ve fished against each other in the Falls and the Fort tournaments,” he noted.
“Seriously, though, this was something that was on my bucket list,” added the first-time Classic entrant.
“I have three kids and I’ve always said I wanted to fish with each one of them in a tournament,” Van noted.
“I went in an ice-fishing tournament with my daughter, Ashley, and now this is the first time to be in one with Jason.”
Jason Pavleck, meanwhile, is now 2-for-2 at the Classic and, with his father nodding in agreement, didn’t hesitate to give an emphatic salute for his success the past two years to Senter.
“I learned how to fish from Bill technique-wise,” he remarked.
“He needs all the credit. He handed me a secret that worked out,” Pavleck added.
“I can never repay him.”
The decisive lunker—like the other two keepers for the Pavlecks—came late in the afternoon and turned out to be the better of two simultaneous options.
“Jason had one on his line and I had one on mine at the same time,” recalled Van.
“I grabbed the net with one hand and held my rod with the other. I knew his was bigger.”
The Pavlecks took the scenic tour of Rainy Lake to track down their catches.
“We moved all over the lake, that’s the Gospel truth,” Van stressed.
“I was a little concerned because Jason got this gut feeling and I wasn’t sure if we should go, but his gut worked,” he added.
“He knows what he’s doing.”
The younger Pavleck was more modest about the key to him winning back-to-back Classic titles.
“It’s not easy, it’s luck, and you can put that in capital letters,” he said.
The pair’s accomplishment never would have happened without Jason urging his dad to step out of his fishing comfort zone eight years ago.
“I was born an avid walleye fisherman,” Van admitted. “Jason had to talk me into bass fishing.
“I thought it was like watching paint dry beforehand,” he noted. “But I went out and tried it, and I was hooked.”
The only problem?
“My wife was mad at me because I used to only do walleye and she loves walleye,” Van laughed.
“She doesn’t know why I spend all this money and don’t bring something great to eat home.”
Tucker and Cain also looked like they would have the big fish of the tourney (4.44 pounds) before they were passed first by Ryan McDowall and Riley Caul of Fort Frances (4.46) and then the Pavlecks.
Larry Foss and Joel Pagnac of the Falls were the only other team to crack the 12-pound mark, finishing in third place (12.08).
Another son-father team, Shane and Murray Wepruk of Fort Frances, landed in fourth spot (11.40) while another Fort team—Karl Howells and Jim Sandelovich—snared fifth (11.24).
Darryl and Callum Galusha of Fort Frances were sixth (10.60), followed by 2013 Classic winners Glenn Ward of Devlin and Doug Berry of Fort Frances (10.32).
Ward and Berry still hold the all-time tournament record of 13.14 pounds.
McDowall and Caul settled for eighth place (10.22) while Leroy Wilson of the Falls and Grant Swire of Devlin placed ninth (10.20).
The husband-and-wife combination of Dave and Andrea Byrnes from Fort Frances rounded out the top 10 (9.98).
