By Lucas Punkari, Staff Writer Fort Frances Times
It’s a fishing tale that will be hard to believe for years to come, even for those who were in attendance at the Ice for Kids Arena on Saturday evening.
The 2011 edition of the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship ended up being an historic one in the seventeen year history of the tournament, as the International Falls team of Richard Rud and Jon Austin and the Thunder Bay based tandem of Glenn Leroux and Trevor Zimak were both awarded the tournament title.
Both teams finished the three-day tournament with an identical total of 52.42 pounds, which led to a lengthy meeting behind the stage to determine how the situation would be sorted out.
The official rules of the tournament state that in the event of a tie for first place, that it would be broken with a one hour fish off, but with the rough conditions out on Rainy Lake and a steering issue for the Leroux and Zimak boat, that was completely out of the question.
The next way to break up the tie at the top was to have a coin flip, but neither team would have any part of that, so it was decided that all four anglers would hoist the FFCBC trophy.
“We are both fine with it,” Austin, who has fished with Rud in the tournament for the last five years, said.
“Both of us fished hard for three days, and I think both of us felt that we deserved to be champions.
“We are both content with being co-champions and it really works out the best,” Austin stressed.
“This is a once in a lifetime thing,” Leroux, who was in his second FFCBC with Zimak, added.
“You don’t want to see one team lose out over a coin toss, so we might as well share the wealth with the winnings and the prestige that goes along with that,” Leroux said.
Entering Day 3 in fifth place in the standings, Rud and Austin brought in a five fish haul of 19.10 pounds, which was the biggest total caught during the day and enough to take the lead away from Lauren Ras and Chuck Olson.
“We were just hoping to put five into the boat, come in with 12 to 15 pounds and not embarrass ourselves,” Rud chuckled.
“When we got up this morning and saw the wind ripping like it was with the cold temperature, our strategy was to hopefully get five fish, plain and simple,” Austin added.
“I actually caught a fish on my first cast of the day, and it just never stopped from there.
“We kind of kept saying ‘this is a crazy day,’ and while we certainly didn’t expect to take the lead, it was a nice a surprise,” Austin smiled.
The next team to come up on stage were Leroux and Zimak, who entered the day in fourth place and soon found themselves sharing the hot seat with the International Falls duo with a 17.71 catch, which was the second best haul of Day 3.
“We were just glad not to be under the other guys,” Zimak said.
“The worst thing you can do is to lose by a hundredth of a pound, so we were both just happy to tie,” Leroux added.
With all four anglers sitting on the hot seat, the co-leaders could only watch as the final three teams of Mark Raveling and Mike Luhman, Joe Thrun and Ben Miller and tournament leaders Darren Ward and Sean Good all rolled into the arena to show off their catches.
But when none of those teams could knock the co-leaders off of their perch, the tie for the tournament title was assured.
“With those guys and those names behind us, we didn’t think what we had was going to be enough to hold up,” Zimak stressed.
“Raveling is a phenomenal guy and he’s so consistent, and there’s not much else you can say about Joe as he’s won here five times.
“When we saw that they didn’t have the weight, we were both just shocked to stay up in the lead,” Zimak added.
Behind the co-winners in the standings were Raveling and Luhman (49.96 pounds), with Ras and Olson (47.59 pounds) and Jeff Gustafson and John Peterson making up the rest of the top five.
Rounding out the top ten were Bill Sentor and Brian Durham (45.79), Ward and Good (45.71), Scott Bonnema and Mark Fisher (43.30), Thrun and Miller (41.72) and Vince Godbout and Ron Tucker (37.64).
With the new tournament format this year, two other winners were crowned in the second and third divisions, which consisted of teams that were outside of the championship flight of teams in the top ten.
The second division was won by Tony Holenko and Larry Foss of International Falls with a 17.30 pound haul on Day 3, while the third division crown was captured by 2010 FFCBC champions Dorian Lindholm and Bill Wilcox, who caught 17.61 pounds of bass.
The biggest fish of the entire tournament was caught back on Day 1, as Bonnema and Fisher caught a 4.91-pound lunker.
For photos, pick up today's edition of The Journal.
