Father-son duo win season’s final fishing tourney

The district’s competitive fishing season came to a close over the weekend, with Alex and Darrell Keszler of Winnipeg being the two anglers at the top of the heap at the 2007 Fall Bass Classic at Birch Point Camp.
The pair bagged 39.56 pounds to narrowly edge out defending champ Ted Stewner, now paired with his wife, Louise, who finished second with 39.30 pounds.
The win came as a bit of an upset as the Keszlers were in sixth place after weighing in 19.14 pounds on Saturday.
Asked if they thought it was their tournament to win, Darrell Keszler admitted “when I looked at the weights [on Saturday] and realized we were just a hair under two pounds, I thought, yeah . . . it was surprising, actually.”
The Keszlers said their big edge in the tournament was simply staying patient—and a little luck. They never lost a fish they got on their line.
“The other part of patience is just believing you can get it,” Darrell observed.
Staying patient was hard with the weather, his dad admitted.
“Weather was pretty rough,” he remarked. “This time of year, you gotta have everything with you. You never know how it’s gonna be.”
The anglers still have a couple of tournaments to fish back in Manitoba. And while they were glad to bring home a $5,000 cheque, doing it together made it especially sweet.
“Fishing with a family member, it just makes everything that much more special,” Alex Keszler said.
The Stewners, also of Winnipeg, would have to agree. After winning the tournament several times, including last year paired with John Guzej, Ted Stewner took his wife to Northwest Bay this year.
While he laughed that coming second “[is] not as good as first,” their finish was “great.”
“Louise can catch fish with the best of them,” Stewner said.
As for Louise: “I make sure I get that hook as hard as a man, let me tell you,” she remarked.
She was happy with the win, but nagged by the close finish.
“To me, I think it’s frustrating that someone beats you out by a spit. Guzej tells me to open the fish’s mouth and let it fill with water,” she laughed.
While Stewner was happy with being runner-up, he wanted to make it clear he was rooting for his old pal, Guzej, who finished in 14th place this year paired with Rick Loeb.
“He’s had to learn all his stuff again,” Stewner said.
Third place went to Wayne and Dean Howard of Emo and Kenora, respectively, who had a 39.26-pound total—just four/100ths of a pound out of the runner-up spot.
One of the big stories of the weekend was the close weights, which extended well past the top three. The difference between sixth and 11th, for instance, was exactly half-a-pound.
The big fish of the tournament, interestingly, was a tie. Mike and Sandy Salvador caught a 4.86-pounder on Saturday while Steve Mattson and Matt Christy caught an identical weight on Sunday.
Weights were down sharply from last year, though, when Stewner and Guzej topped the field with a 45.60-pound bag. Bags of 20 pounds were not uncommon a year ago and the biggest bass tipped the scales at 5.68 pounds.
As for the Keszlers, even with the big win and the big cheque, they had to hit the road shortly after the awards to start the long drive back home to Winnipeg.
Darrell still had work first thing Monday morning.
“The celebrating part comes to an end quick for us,” he noted.