Joey Payeur
The first time Troy Norman and Jay Samsal tried to climb the mountain that is the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship, Rainy Lake buried them in a pile of boulders.
Could they actually have believed at that point that one day they would be standing on the peak?
Norman didn’t bat an eyelash. “100 percent,” he replied.
That determination led the Fort Frances angler and his Kenora teammate to their first FFCBC title Saturday at the Sorting Gap Marina—taking home the top prize of $20,000 after finishing with a 53.42-pound total in the 99-team field.
That put them .87 pounds ahead of 2012 champs Mark Raveling (Longville, Mn.) and Mike Luhman (Deer Park, Wis.), who finished second with 52.55.
After placing 27th last year, the champs’ 11th try at FFCBC glory certainly went better than their original attempt back in 2006.
“We finished dead last [of those who recorded weights],” chuckled Samsal, who was lifted off his feet by the shorter Norman in an exuberant bear hug when their championship win officially was announced.
“But every year, we learned something new that we took away with us.
“We came close a few times [third in 2013 and fourth in 2014],” Samsal added.
“But when you fish against a field this good, you can’t slip up one little bit,” he stressed.
Norman became part of just the fourth championship team in the FFCBC’s 22-year history to include at least one Fort Frances angler.
“It’s so sweet,” he beamed. “It shows that all the hard work and failures meant something.”
The team’s consistency was important to coming out on top.
Norman and Samsal never had the biggest bag on any of the three days, but followed their 16.19-pound total on Day 1 with the third-largest haul on Day 2 (18.64), including the day’s big fish (4.90), and then the second-biggest total catch on Day 3 (18.59).
“All three days, we went to different areas and all three days we used different baits,” noted Norman.
“No two days in a row was the water active the same way and no two days in a row were the same baits active.”
“This tournament is all about good decision-making,” echoed Samsal.
“We just kept our composure when things got tough.”
When it comes to a repeat performance next year (another rarity in the tournament with just five out of 22 years seeing the title successfully defended), Norman was clear he and Samsal don’t intend to be flashes in the pan.
“You don’t enter a tournament to plan to get second,” he declared.
In what was almost the all-time FFCBC comeback story, Joe Thrun (Annandale, Mn.) and Jim Moynagh (Carver, Mn.) nearly added to their already record-setting total of five FFCBC crowns.
The pair had a phenomenal final two days after ending Day 1 all the way down in 71st place with just 11.86 pounds.
Proving writing them off early is never a good idea, Thrun and Moynagh brought in the biggest bag of the entire tournament (20.70) on Friday.
The duo then reeled in the biggest fish of the tournament on Saturday (4.91) as part of a 17.96 effort.
But despite being one of only three teams to crack the 50-pound barrier this year, their Day 1 deficit was just too much to make up as Thrun and Moynagh wound up third (50.52).
Perennial contender Bryan Gustafson of Fort Frances and Kenora partner Brian McNanney finished in fourth (49.80).
Kenora’s Dean Smith and Jim Gustafson, who started Day 3 outside of the top 10, launched themselves into contention with Saturday’s biggest bag (19.18) and actually held the “hot seat” for a while as the leaders before winding up in fifth (48.68).
Smith and Gustafson were one of three teams that vaulted into the top 10 on Saturday.
Joining them were Gustafson’s son, Jeff “Gussy” Gustafson from Kenora, and Bemidji teammate John Peterson, who took home the FFCBC title in 2013-14 but only could manage ninth place this year (47.11).
Day 1 leaders Bill Godin (Devlin) and three-time winner Dave Lindsay of Kenora (48.53) finished in sixth place.
They were followed by Brandon Kamm of Fort Frances and Atikokan’s Aaron Wiens—the top rookie team in this year’s field—in seventh (48.21) and 2011 co-champs Richard Rud and Jon Austen from International Falls in eighth (47.40).
Rounding out the top 10 were Connor Burton and Jeff Engstrom of Kenora (46.95), who finished in the exact same spot last year.
Meanwhile, defending champs Steve Sandberg (Brooklyn Lake, Mn.) and his brother, Scott, of Ham Lake, Mn., were done in by bad luck.
The Sandbergs had their first boat conk out on them on Thursday a mere two miles after heading out first on the water as is the tradition.
A two-hour delay left them with a Day 1 score of 12.54 pounds, which left them in 60th place.
Day 2 allowed for a significant comeback (17.68), but the Sandbergs were waylaid again by mechanical woes when their second boat also stopped working on Day 3.
“We probably only ended up fishing half the actual tournament,” a frustrated Steve Sandberg said on stage after their 14.84-pound bag left the siblings in 15th place overall.
However, the Sandbergs could take some pride in knowing their gambles when selecting Team U.S.A. for the FFCBC’s inaugural Can-Am Challenge paid off as the Red, White and Blue cruised to victory over Team Canada (240.87-173.03 pounds).
The captains steered away from convention—picking two teams (Raveling/Luhman and Thrun/Moynagh) who were not among the top five American teams in last year’s tourney.
Those two and the Rud/Austen pairing, along with the 14th-place team of Chad Johnson (Rogers, Mn.) and John Janousek (Nisswa, Mn.), meant all five U.S. teams landed in the top 15.
Meanwhile, the Canadian contingent only had two of its teams—Godin/Lindsay and captains Duane Cridland and Chad Hanson of Fort Frances, who wound up 37th—weigh in all three days.
There was no sign of the Fort team of Denis Barnard and Scott Gobeil (83rd), brothers Rene Cadene from Atikokan and Morgan Cadene of Cranbrook, B.C. (84th), or the Thunder Bay teen tandem of Nick Vescio and Mitch Siciliano (87th) at Saturday’s weigh-ins.
Team Canada had led 80.94-67.75 after Day 1, but Team U.S.A. had a huge day on Day 2 (90.17 to Canada’s 62.65) to take an almost 15-pound lead into Day 3.
Cridland suggested there may be more than bragging rights on the line next year.
The owner of The Flint House restaurant on Scott Street told the crowd there’s a possibility of his business sponsoring a “Flint House Cup” for next year’s Can-Am winners.
