For a third time Jeff Gustafson of Kenora and Scott Dingwall of Dryden won the International Falls Bass Championship. The team finished with 31.44 pounds of smallmouth bass taken from the Rainy Lake and Rainy River in the two-day, catch-and-release event.
The team bested its 2010 championship win by 1.39 pounds and set a new record for total two-day weight in the seven-year-old IFBC. The team took first in 2005, the first year of the IFBC, with 27.73 pounds.
Gustafson said the third win of the event felt pretty good. Even though he and his teammate are friends with many of the anglers in the tournament, he said the IFBC is tough competition.
“It’s hard to win any of these big tournaments, so when it happens you enjoy it,” he said. “We had a good day today and it makes the whole summer for me — that’s the highlight of the summer. We’re looking forward to the party tonight.”
“Everything went perfect today,” Dingwall said. “It was a good day.”
Gustafson complimented IFBC President Gary Potter’s skills as a first-time emcee and said the support of the community and the effort of the volunteers was appreciated. Dingwall also said he appreciated the efforts of the community in the IFBC as well as the support of fellow anglers.
Potter recalled a prediction made earlier by Gustafson that some angler would bring a 20-pound, one-day bag from the lake. The team fell just ounces short of giving truth to the prediction.
“The reality is that Rainy Lake has got big smallmouth in it,” said Gustafson. “The potential is there. You don’t just go out on the lake and expect to catch 19 pounds, and we sure didn’t, but the potential is there.”
Gustafson said the team caught a limit Saturday on the lake in 15 minutes, with just one big fish at that time. The team culled the fish as they continued to catch other large fish. The team took special honors in catching the largest smallmouth on Day 2 weighing in a lake fish at 4.75 pounds. They also won the big catch award on Day 2 with 19.19 pounds.
Gustafson called fishing the river challenging and said catching a large bag on the lake takes a little luck.
“When it’s sunny on this lake the big fish go shallow, and whether you’re at Fort Frances or here, we’ve been able to capitalize on that in the last two years,” he said.
The lures the team used were small and light and fished fast, he said, noting that smallmouth hit quickly if they are present. Gustafson said he’s learned from fishing the lake that if they want to bite, they will show themselves quickly. “If you try to wait them out, they’ll burn ya,” he said.
Team No. 12, David Beckman of Crane Lake and Ron Gerdesmeir of Hugo, came through the tent based on their top finish Friday with 17.50 pounds of Rainy River smallie. The team finished second with a two-day total of 28.67.
Team No. 22 John Ruud and Erik Ruud of Chisholm talked about the beautiful ride down the river and spending a wonderful day on Rainy Lake. The team has fished the event each year and this year finished in third place with 26.16 pounds. The team, like many others, thanked the community for offering the unique two-waters, two-day event on some of the premier small mouth waters in the state.
The team numbers, in most cases, indicate the previous year’s finish. The top 10 teams based on Friday’s weights are delivered into “the big tent” in their boats while loud rock music blares and the team members throw items ranging from candy, lures and fishing line to beads to the screaming audience fronted by young children reaching high in the air to grab a souvenir from the anglers.
Team No. 19, International Falls anglers John Cann and Ted Olson, the 2009 champions, came in fourth this year with 25.65 pounds. Olson said the team didn’t have a fish in the boat until after 1 p.m. Saturday on Rainy Lake. “We picked up one little one and then we only had seven more bites all day long.” Cann called the day “a struggle, but we just stayed with it and ground it out and that’s how it worked out.” Olson said the last fish caught Saturday hit on a jig deep, adding that he wasn’t sure using a different kind of lure would have made a difference in the outcome.
Potter asked about the window display at Cann’s downtown business, which featured stick replicas of the anglers “bantering,” as Cann described it, about whose boat would be used in the tournament. And, Potter noted, they showed up Saturday in neither Cann’s nor Olson’s boat. Cann said fellow Falls competitor Jon Austin used Cann’s boat for the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship and so Austin’s boat was used by Team No. 19.
Team No. 7, Dale LaBelle, Devlin, and Karl Howells, Fort Frances, finished sixth with 25.09 pounds. They received a check for the biggest fish taken on the river. They said they caught their first bass after 2 p.m. Saturday and caught a few more just before they had to come off the water.
Team No. 45, Bryan Gustafson, Fort Frances, and Austin, who with John Rud of the Falls tied for first place at the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship in July, said they lost several big fish late in the day. The biggest fish caught Saturday, “wasn’t nearly big enough” said Austin, to put the team closer to the top finish. The team took seventh place with 24.60 pounds of smallmouth.
Team No. 16, Jason Pavleck of the Falls and first-time championship angler Derek Bilben, of the Falls, made a trip through the tent Saturday and finished eighth with 24.38 pounds of fish. They thanked their wives for supporting their efforts. When asked what kind of lures the team used, Pavleck said Gustafson, known as “Gussy,” gave him a lure that was likely defective. “I think it was broken when he gave it to me,” he joked.
Team No. 46, Jeff Hamilton, Ranier, and Joel Pagnac, Falls, finished ninth with 24.04 pounds. Hamilton said the team had its best day yet on the river, but hit a log on the way down the river and bumped a rock on the way back with no apparent damage to the boat.
“We got into some fish and they got big, real big,” said Pagnac, who added that the catching was so frenzied at one point Hamilton threw his hands up and said he quit.
Team No. 28, Tyler Kocon, Duluth, and Kyle Potter of International Falls, finished 10th with 23.66 pounds of fish. Potter said they, along with other teams, lost a few big ones that would have made a difference in their placement. Kocon joked with Gary Potter that he’d heard Potter had a boat for sale and “it just got a lot cheaper,” he said, referring to earlier stories about another team featuring Potter’s sons who said they hit a rock with their dad Gary’s boat.
Team No. 4, brothers Duane and John Peterson of Bemidji, complimented the fisheries and the local anglers that fish the tournament. The team finished 11th with 28.54 pounds.
Team No. 48’s Garrett King of the Falls said the bite started late in the day, but a small window opened during which the fish were biting. His partner Josh Meyers of the Falls said the fish caught were about average weight, but they lost no fish. The team finished 17th with 22.14 pounds.
Team No. 21, Falls father-and-son-in-law anglers Van Pavleck and Jared Baldwin, teased Potter about his children hitting a rock while using his boat. They finished 28th, bringing 14.83 pounds in on Day 2 for a total weight of 18.09 pounds.
Baldwin said their day started out decent with one in the boat by 10 a.m. Then, they joked, they had one get away when Potter pulled up in a boat to observe. Pavleck said son Jason, who finished eighth, gave him a few tips and they seemed to work. He said he was pretty disgusted by the one that got away and jokingly estimated the weight at 15 pounds.
Several father-and-son teams fished, including Team 29, George and Jon McDonald who fished the river Saturday bringing in 10.66 pounds for a total weight of 17.57. The team joked that with another day of fishing, they may have finished higher in the placement. Jon McDonald caught the big one of the day for the team, weighing 3.3 pounds, in shallow water.
George McDonald noted that a rock and a log found their boat during the tournament. “What ever I didn’t take off yesterday, I took off today,” George added.
For photos, pick up today's edition of The Journal, or visit www.ifallsjournal.smugmug.com.
