Another tournament is in the books, and this year’s champions sure look a lot like last year’s.
Ian Waterer and Motei Demers are the repeat winners of the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship (FFCBC), which ran last week and saw more than one hundred teams face off for a chance to hoist the trophy. Water and Demers are now three time winners of the tournament, scoring first place in last year’s showdown, as well as their debut tournament in 2022. The teammates from Winnipeg, Manitoba, landed a grand total weight of 59.89 pounds this year, putting them just ahead of second place finalists James Hill and Chris Viel’s catch of 56.89 pounds.
On the Big Tent stage as their victory was announced, Waterer and Demers told emcee Shane Beckett they were speechless. After a few minutes, congratulations from competing teams, and a chance to check in with their friends and families, the shock of the win might not have worn off, but the words had come back to them.
“When we started fishing this tournament, it was four years ago, and we won the first year we fished it together and thought, ‘Well, that’ll probably never happen again,” Waterer said.
“And it’s been three more years and we’ve won twice more. And every time it’s been something totally different. It’s been a different spot, different part of the lake, different deal, different bait. And every time it’s been so stressful on day three, every single time, but now we just have the confidence that we always seem to find them, and that goes so far when you’re struggling mid-day.”
It might have felt a struggle in the boat, but viewers in the tent at the end of each day would never have known it. Waterer and Demers maintained a comfortable position throughout the tournament, ending day one with a weight of 20.24, just behind Steve and Scott Sandberg’s total haul of 20.75, but making up the difference and then some to finish Day 2 with a catch of 19.57 that put them into the top spot as they went into the final day of fishing. The final haul added 20.08 to their total, netting them the top prize.
Demers noted that through their years of fishing the FFCBC, they know what the average weights that have taken the grand prize look like, and so try their best to make sure they stay on target as each day progresses.
“Like Ian said, we play the long game,” Demers said.
“Basically, 60 pounds is what we know would win this tournament, so 20 pounds a day is our goal, and if we get it, we lay off of them if we have them and save them for the next day.”
With each year being a different game for the team, this year they felt they had a good thing going early, as Waterer recalled getting a text from Demers, who was out pre-fishing and trying to find the perfect spot to fish, that simply said “ball game.”
“He said, ‘we’ve got something here,’” Waterer said.
“He found a spot and said ‘no one’s going to touch this. They’re all big.’ You’ve gotta trust in your partner, and the first two days, we caught one out of it, and it was always a big one. Day three we pulled up there and it was just mayhem. We got it done and he caught them all. It was a pretty impressive display of just being able to hold out and not lean on those fish and not try and chip up, and we know we set that mark at twenty and then just pull off the gas.”
The weather didn’t hurt their fishing either, as Demers said they had “three perfect weather days” out on the lake.
the Big Tent was filled with fishing fans catching the final day weigh-ins and the Top 10 Boat parade: Jaret Greene (Team 93), left, and Ryan Danylchuk (Team 103) each held up one of the big fish they caught during the final day of fishing as they entered the big tent as part of the Top 10 Boat Parade. Team 93 wound up taking the 11th spot on the leaderboard, while Team 103 ended up in spot number 9.
With a third tournament win in the bag, Waterer and Demers are likely to be back to defend their title in next year’s tournament, and they extended their thanks not only to the myriad volunteers who help to make the competition a success, but also to someone they called “the backbone” to a pair of teams who come to town each year.
“We want to give a huge thank you to all the volunteers and anyone who’s a part of this tournament, because it’s so well run, it’s unbelievable,” Demers said.
“There’s one person who’s the backbone of us and another team, which is Tasha Badiuk, who makes us meals every night and gives us a place to stay,” Waterer added.
“It goes so far to just come home and have something cooked for you, because otherwise we’d just be eating hotdogs on rye bread.”
The top 10 teams, and their total weights, are as follows:
- Ian Waterer and Motei Demers – 59.89 pounds
- James Hill and Chris Viel – 56.89 pounds
- Mike Wilson and Jon Balaski – 55.55 pounds
- Bryan Gustafson and Mike Luhman – 55.31 pounds
- Troy Norman and Jay Samsal – 54.87 pounds
- Mike Maxton and Javyn Maxton – 54.24 pounds
- Colin Barton and Ben Jesperson – 53.81 pounds
- Lauren Ras and Scott Ras – 53.58 pounds
- Ryan Danylchuk and Karson Loughrey – 53.34 pounds
- Karl Howells and Mike Adams – 52.48 pounds
