Mitch Calvert
It might be time to rope off Haymarsh Bay if organizers hope to have new champions crowned at next year’s Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship.
The Minnesota duo of Joe Thrun and Jim Moynagh have made some serious hay in there the last two years—again stringing together three excellent days during the 15th-annual event that concluded Saturday to cement their place in FFCBC lore with an unprecedented fifth title overall.
The duo brought in a monster 20.08-pound bag on Day 3 to finish with a three-day total of 57.76 pounds—less than a pound shy of their record haul of 58.62 set back in 1998.
The team earned $25,000 for first place, plus an extra $3,000 for having the big bag on all three days and another $1,000 for their performance in the “Kid-Pro” tournament on July 19.
The win was their third-straight and eighth top-three finish in nine tries here—made especially impressive by the fact their pre-fishing yielded little results.
“In practice we had some struggles, and even the few fish we did catch weren’t that big, so this is a very nice surprise to see it come together,” Moynagh said after the final weigh-in late Saturday afternoon under the big tent at the Sorting Gap Marina.
“We had a hard time figuring out what was working [in practice], had a hard time getting dialed in, but we learned as we went and once the tournament started, we knew some fish were around and tried some different things to get them to bite,” he noted.
The pair were tight-lipped about where and how they fish, but certainly their “go-to” spot has been no secret the last two tournaments.
“[Friday] we were last the boat out, and a lot of those other boats knew where we were fishing but none of those boats were there, so I want to thank the competitors for their sportsmanship,” Moynagh stressed.
“We don’t like to talk about where we fish or how we fish too much because we’ll be back and want to keep some secrets to ourselves, but there’s a few places we like to visit out here and some of them paid off,” he added.
“Our morning started out quite slow [on Saturday],” admitted Thrun. “We were pretty worried, but the fish just seemed to show up and the fish had more to do with it than we did.
“It’s just about being in the right area at the right time, and it paid off for us,” he stressed.
Thrun was full of emotion after the victory, noting how important this win was for reasons outside of fishing.
“It always is that way for me,” he explained. “It’s just a big deal and there’s been a lot going on [in my life] and I just get emotional.”
Despite their obvious success on Rainy Lake, the pair said this tournament isn’t strictly a business trip these days.
“We’ve made a lot of good friends we’ve met through fishing this tournament,” Thrun noted. “We actually stay with some people we’ve met in town here [Wayne and Sherry Kaun], and this is really the only time you see some of these people.”
The pair’s track record at the FFCBC is second-to-none, including back-to-back title wins in 1998 and ’99 as well as two second-place finishes in ’97 and 2000.
Lauren Ras and Chuck Olson, of Bemidji, Mn., finished a distant second with a three-day catch of 49.85 pounds despite a tough third day on the water.
“We had a tough day or so we thought,” Ras said of their 15.22-pound bag on Day 3. “We were looking for one more ‘kicker’ because we had a small one to get rid of but it didn’t happen.
“We’ll just have to learn how to catch bigger bass and come back next year,” he reasoned.
The Bemidji duo improved on a fourth-place finish from a year ago while Kenora’s Jeff Gustafson and his partner, John Peterson of Bemidji, (49.48) moved up to third with a 49.48-pound total after a seventh-place showing last July.
Dorian Lindholm (Fort Frances) and Bill Wilcox (Burleson) brought in the second-biggest haul Saturday with an 18.83-pound bag—and surprisingly held the hot seat through much of the top 10 boats before finally being unseated by Gustafson and Peterson.
Their strong day on Saturday, including having the big fish at 5.26 pounds, went against the fortunes of much of the field and propelled them to a fourth-place finish with a three-day catch of 46.83 pounds.
Fort Frances siblings Mike and Chad Hanson were the best all-local pair with a three-day haul of 46.62 pounds, including Friday’s big fish (4.46 pounds).
Another set of brothers, Wayne and Dean Howard, of Emo and Kenora, respectively, finished sixth (46.55 pounds).
Rounding out the top 10 were John Janousek and Chad Johnson (46.19 pounds), Darren Marcine and Sarah McDougall (45.14), Scott Ourada and John Allen (44.57), and Travis Peterson and Duane Peterson (44.57).
Jim Sandelovich and Karl Howells, also both from Fort Frances, finished a solid 11th with 44.49 pounds while four-time winner Dave Lindsay and significant other, Janice Wickham, wrapped up 12th spot with a 44.38-pound total despite a tough third day.
“A lot of our spots had dried up, but this is kind of like a vacation for us and we enjoy it,” Lindsay said after the pair weighed in just an 11.15-pound bag on Saturday.
“It’s a lot of fun and I’ve got the greatest partner in the world.”
Dennis Mandamin and Daniel Kelly of Pawatik finished 13th overall with a three-day catch of 43.93 pounds, including a 17.50-pound bag on Day 1 on Thursday.
Last year’s runners-up, Alex and Darrell Keszler, bagged 15.43 pounds on Day 3 to move up to 14th place with a 43.94-pound total.
Two-time champs James and Bill Lindner (in 2003 and ’04) haven’t been in the hunt in recent years, but cracked the top 20 in 17th this year thanks to a renewed strategy.
“We haven’t fared well here the last few years, so we decided to start with a new game plan,” James Lindner said. “We erased our GPS units and started anew.
“We learned a lot, and I think next year we’ll be a lot tougher at this tournament,” he added.
Another Fort Frances pairing, Bryan Gustafson and Mike Adams, finished just outside the top 20 in 21st with a 43.18-pound total.
The 20-year-old Gustafson was on a tear going into the FFCBC after finishing second at the “Castin’ for Cash” tournament on Lake Despair earlier this month.
He said this tournament has a little extra riding on it because of where it’s held.
“All your friends and family [are here], you know just about everyone here,” Gustafson remarked. “It’s the biggest tournament in Northwestern Ontario out of all the ones I fish, with a lot more riding on it.”
FFCBC angler Darren Gregory, who was born in Fort Frances, was saluted by emcee Paul Morrison for his six tours of duty with the Canadian forces in Afghanistan.
Morrison officially stepped down from his role as the voice of the FFCBC on Saturday, as well.
Thursday saw the best fishing out of the three days, with 582 bass caught totalling 1,583.08 pounds.
Friday saw 532 caught weighing 1,329.86 pounds while Saturday’s numbers dropped right off to 446 fish caught weighing just 1,122.42 pounds in all.
