KBI turning 30

A tradition 30 years in the making is set to kick off on Thursday morning as bass anglers hit Lake of the Woods for day one of the 2017 Kenora Bass International.
Started back in 1988, the KBI has always taken place over the second weekend in August and over the years hundreds of anglers have competed thanks to the hard work of hundreds more volunteers.
The KBI has been a big part of my life since I was a little kid. When I was really young I can vaguely remember fishing off the docks in the Kids KBI before my Dad signed us up to fish the big tournament when I was 10 years old. The entry fee for the tournament that first year was my Christmas present that year and probably the best present I ever got!
Over the years there are not many days to go by when I don’t think about the KBI is some regard, maybe a new area on the lake to check out or just memories of all the fun that I’ve had over the years.
My Dad and I fished the tournament together for the first five years that I fished before he cut me loose to fish with my friend Jess Swenson when we were 16.
We had a great tournament that year (1999) and finished 2nd.
The next year I partnered up with Chris Savage and we actually won the tournament. Chris and I fished together until 2015 then we both missed the tournament last year.
I was fishing the FLW Championship tournament the same weekend last year in Alabama and Chris has a busy life with his job and family so he is taking a break.
We have had a lot fun fishing the tournament over the years and have made a lot of friends along the way.
There are some pretty awesome memories around some of the days that we’ve had and a few of the fish that we’ve caught.
This year things are going full circle for me as I am once again teaming up with my Dad, Jim. He has fished the tournament with my younger brother, Ben, for years but Ben is living in Toronto and is unable to make it for the tournament this year.
It will be fun to fish with Dad.
Other than teaming up for a smaller tournament or two in the past decade, we have not fished a tournament together since our last KBI in 1998.
I am fortunate that he travels with me a few times a year for my U.S. tournaments so we spend quite a bit of time together in the boat.
It will be interesting to see how things will go for us this weekend.
We are both very competitive but we have different fishing styles.
I like to chase largemouths while he prefers to target smallmouths generally so we’ll have to try to come up with a game plan that appeases both of us! We’ll have fun no matter what we do.
So far the practice has been kind of tough for us. Fishing has been good but we have not been finding enough three and four pound fish that we will need to compete for the win.
It’s pretty amazing that this will be the 30th edition of the KBI. I’m sure that Doug Bishop and the other early organizers never imagined that this tournament would turn into the big event that it has, attracting hundreds of bass anglers to Lake of the Woods and really putting the lake on the map so to speak amongst bass anglers all over North America.
The tournament runs Thursday through Saturday (Aug. 10-12) with weigh-ins starting at 4 p.m. on Thursday and Friday down at the White Cap Pavilion.
The weigh-in starts at 3 p.m. on Saturday with the top ten boat parade happening at around 5 p.m.
There will be plenty of activities going on down at the tent throughout the weekend including the Kids KBI and live music under the tent on Saturday night.
Good luck to all of the anglers fishing this weekend, I look forward to seeing everybody down on the Harbourfront!