Shaw Kenora Bass International - 2nd place

The 24th annual SKBI tournament took place last week on Lake of the Woods.  The tournament went awesome as usual - many thanks to all the directors and volunteers that put in all the time that they do, year after year - the anglers appreciate it!  

Chris Savage and I had a great tournament and ended up 2nd with a three day total weight of 50.53 pounds.  We were just edged by our friends Mark Libitka and Dave Bennett, also of Kenora.  Their total of 50.67 pounds took the first place prize of $25,000.  Congratulations to Mark and Dave!  They earned it.  

We weighed in 9 smallmouths and 6 largemouths over the weekend and never weighed one fish that hurt us.  All of our fish were over three pounds, so we were proud of that.  We caught our fish on a variety of baits and had to adapt to the weather conditions each day of the event.  

Smallmouths:  We caught them on #8 X-Raps, X-Rap Poppers, and some small prototype Northland Impulse tubes.  All fished on Shimano Cumara spinning (X-Rap and tube) and baitcast rods (Popper).  Shimano Stradic CI4 reels (3000 size) - 10 pound Power Pro Line for the spinning rods, Shimano Curado 200E7 baitcast reel and 30 lb. Power Pro for the popper.  

Largemouths:  We caught them all on Northland Jungle Jigs tipped with Trigger-X Flappin' Craws on the back.  We fished these jigs on a 7'5" G. Loomis GLX flippin' stick matched with Shimano Curado 200E7 reels - 65 lb. Power Pro line.  

1	88	18.46	14.30	17.91	50.67	DAVE BENNETT	SIOUX NARROWS	MARK LIBITKA	KENORA
2	4	16.35	16.42	17.76	50.53	JEFF GUSTAFSON	KENORA	CHRIS SAVAGE	KEEWATIN
3	5	15.05	14.10	18.68	47.83	JESS SWENSON	SIOUX NARROWS	MICHAEL REID	SIOUX NARROWS
4	2	18.76	13.52	15.11	47.39	BRIAN MCNANNEY	SIOUX NARROWS	MATTHEW RYDBERG	SIOUX NARROWS
5	32	11.95	15.45	18.92	46.32	JAY SAMSAL	KENORA	TROY NORMAN	FORT FRANCES
6	10	18.79	12.20	14.18	45.17	ALEX KESZLER	WINNPEG	WAYNE WAGNER	ST. ANDREWS
7	26	13.86	17.39	13.80	45.05	ADAM BACHYNSKI	KEEWATIN	ANDREW BEERNAERT	GLADSTONE
8	9	16.07	14.92	14.00	44.99	KURT DAFCIK	KENORA	STEVE HARGER	MATHEWS
9	16	13.91	18.33	12.31	44.55	JOE PRITCHETT	KENORA	HIRAM ARCHIBALD	SIOUX NARROWS
10	3	15.94	14.31	14.06	44.31	BEHN CARLSON	KENORA	JON PEARSON	KENORA

We were in 1st place after two days - this was moments before blast-off on day three.  

Savy with a big smallmouth he caught in practice on a #8 X-Rap - 4 pound smallmouth

Team Canada won the Can/Am Challange and the Frank Townsend Memorial Trophy.  Left to right - Mike Reid, Behn Carlson, Jon Pearson, Brian McNanney, Chris Savage, Jeff Gustafson, Jess Swenson, Matt Rydberg

You can find full results at the tournament website www.kbifishing.com 

Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship

It was another AWESOME week in Fort Frances last week for the 17th annual FFCBC.  This is one of the premier bass tournaments in Canada and it is always a blast for the anglers.  A huge thanks to all the volunteers that put in all the time that they do to make this a truly special event.  

The weather during the pre-fish was beautiful...hot and flat for five or six days.  It had the big smallmouths in Rainy on a tear!  The fishing the last few days of practice was phenomenal, the best that I have seen on the lake in 12 years of fishing there.   Unfortunately high winds and colder temperatures moved into the area on day one of the tournament and made things much tougher.  It turned into a tough bite for everybody.  

John Peterson and I ended up with a 5th place finish that we were pretty happy with.  We battled every day and caught what we could.  Caught our fish the first day on 1/2 Northland Reed Runner Spinnerbaits, then caught most of our fish over the next two days on small finesse jigs.  

Pos	Team	Captain	Partner	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Total
1	53	Richard Rud	Jon Austin	17.86	15.46	19.10	52.42
1	81	Glenn Leroux	Trevor Zimak	16.11	18.60	17.71	52.42
3	77	Mark Raveling	Mike Luhman	17.92	16.91	15.13	49.96
4	51	Lauren Ras	Chuck Olson	17.45	15.03	15.11	47.59
5	42	Jeff Gustafson	John Peterson	14.44	16.90	14.82	46.16
6	24	Bill Sentor	Brian Durham	16.20	15.39	14.20	45.79
7	49	Darren Ward	Sean Good	19.61	15.84	10.26	45.71
8	48	Scott Bonnema	Mark Fisher	18.04	13.44	11.82	43.30
9	88	Joe Thrun	Ben Miller	15.66	19.26	6.80	41.72
10	21	Vince Godbout	Ron Tucker	13.22	16.45	7.97	37.64

John Peterson with a big smallmouth during prefish for the FFCBC

Austin Strome with a big smallmouth he caught during the 2011 Kid-Pro at the FFCBC

One of our bass on day three.  The boat parade was the highlight of the weekend for all the top ten anglers

Tournament co-champions - Jon Austin/Richard Rud, Glen Leroux/Trevor Zimak - Congratulations guys!  

Again, thanks for an AWESOME event Fort Frances!  www.canadianbass.com 

Shoal Lake Bass Classic Results

The first Sunset Country bass tournament of the season took place July 2-3 on Shoal Lake.  Chris Savage and I fished together and had a tough weekend, ending up with a 17th place finish, just out of the money.  We caught plenty of fish, just didn't get the right ones going this weekend.  Here are the top ten.

1	Dave Kolbelka & Kendrick Penace		4.75	18.34		16.23	34.57
2	Jason Carpentar & Dennis Mandamin			15.99		17.63	33.62
3	Jim Gustafson & Dean Smith			17.67		15.73	33.40
4	Dan Kelly & Daniel Joseph			17.35		16.05	33.40
5	Andrew Beernert & Adam Baychinski			16.7		16.67	33.37
6	Norm Lindsay & Andrew Rogisinski			17.14		16.22	33.36
7	Darin Marcine & Bart Stebnitzky			18.4		14.91	33.31
8	Ted Stewner & Louise Stewner			16.76		16.1	32.86
9	Jamie Green & Brent Green			17.06		15.65	32.71

Chad Reynolds and Ben Gustafson hold up part of their nice day two catch

Dean Smith and Jim Gustafson (my Dad) tied for 3rd place with Dan Kelly and Dan Joseph

Updates...

Hi everybody, thank you for keeping up with my website.  My apologies that there have not been any updates the past few weeks.  My computer went down and I just finally got a new one so I'm back up and running.  I'm currently in Fort Frances, Ontario - pre-fishing for the Canadian Bass Championships coming up this week on Rainy Lake.  I will have a bunch of good stuff to post later in the week.  Stay tuned.  

Live-Forage Crawler Hauler walleyes

My buddy Ryan Pogue from Bemidji, Minnesota sent me this picture of a 25" walleye he caught last week on a Northland Live-Forage Crawler Hauler Spinner Rig fished with Northland Bionic monofilament line.  That is a beauty Ryan!  Looks like you beat Dad again! 

Eric Naig from Northland Fishing Tackle with a great walleye he caught testing a new Crawler Hauler Spinner Rig coming out later this summer.   The new rig works great, believe me!!!