Dale LaBelle of Devlin and Karl Howells of Fort Frances did what seemed inevitable at the third-annual International Falls Bass Championship last weekend.
After finishing third and second, respectively, in the first two tournaments, they captured top spot this time around thanks to a record 18.68-pound bag on Saturday.
The five-fish haul they brought off the river on the second day, which eclipsed the 17.01-pound record they themselves set last year, bolstered a meagre 11.45-pound first-day total from the lake to earn them the $10,000 (U.S.) first prize.
“We knew we were going to stay in the running,” LaBelle admitted. “We’ve been consistent every year . . . each year we had between 10 and 11 pounds on the lake.”
LaBelle added one of the keys to the team’s victory was that there was “no pressure” from other anglers eyeing their spots on the river. “We fished three times on the same spot,” he noted.
Another key was Howells’ first cast on the river on Saturday. He quickly got a bite and reeled in his line—and discovered to his surprise that he had two fish on his hook, each weighing more than three pounds.
“It just felt heavy, I know that,” he said. “I told [LaBelle] that right away.”
“We knew we had our spot on the river,” LaBelle added.
When Howells was asked what he used to attract two fish simultaneously, he refused to tip his hand. “Special lure,” he laughed.
Rounding out the top three were Dave Genz of St. Cloud, Mn. and Larry Bollig of Ham Lake, Mn. with a 28.82-pound total, followed by Scott Dingwall of Dryden and Jeff Gustafson of Kenora with 27.06 pounds over the two days.
Bollig said his team’s performance was good despite the runner-up finish. He and Genz landed an impressive 17.07-pound bag off the river on Friday—the second-largest in the tournament—but couldn’t maintain their lead.
“I knew the lake would be tough,” he said. “There hasn’t been that many big bags on the lake.”
Fans packed the tent at Smokey Bear Park in International Falls to cheer on the 58 teams during the weigh-in on Saturday, enjoyed some of the tournament hosted entertainment, and frequented the carnival-style booths that dotted the park.
Last year’s winners, John Janousek and Chad Johnson of Nisswa and Rogers, Mn., placed seventh, but stole the show when Janousek produced a huge largemouth bass from his livewell during the parade—which the team quickly admitted was a prank plastic fish.
“We’ve been planning that for a while. I’ve been telling people we knew where a big largemouth was,” Janousek told the crowd.
The real big fish on Saturday—a 4.33-pounder—went to the tournament winners while Doug McBride of Devlin and Tom Forstrom of Mankato, Mn. landed a 4.8-pound bass the day before.
LaBelle and Howells were impressed to see how the tournament has grown in such a short time, and both had nothing but good things to say about the community’s presence at the event.
“They support it [well]. They stand right behind it,” Howells said.
The split-format tournament, in which teams fish one day on Rainy Lake and the next on the Rainy River, sees its share of casualties, with many teams struggling to find consistency and score big on the river, which holds more bass than the American side of Rainy Lake.
The challenge of adapting to two fairly different bodies of water over the course of the weekend sets the tournament apart from the others in the region, and is favoured by many participating anglers, tournament president Gary Potter said.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
