End of the season in Sunset Country...almost!!!

The open water season is winding down for another year for me.  There is still plenty of time to get out there and catch some fish but I have been switching gears to deer hunting mode lately so I'm running out time.  I have had some good days on the water since my last post though...

My buddy Jamie Bruce and I got out in late September and had a pretty good day catching largemouths on Lake of the Woods.  We didn't catch numbers but we caught several big ones.  Here is a beauty that I caught on a Jackall MC/60 MR crankbait.  

We caught two of the biggest fish of the day on the same spot...

The last bass tournament of the year took place in Sioux Narrows, out of Whitefish Bay.  Here are my buddies Matt Rydberg and Brian McNanney with part of their 19 lb day two catch that helped land them in 2nd place.  Mike Reid and I teamed up for this tournament, didn't have great fishing but ended up with a 6th place finish and got the last cheque!  Here are the top six results:

Ted/Louise Stewner	18.27	18.64	36.91
Matt Rydberg/Brian McNanney	17.25	19.56	36.81
Alex/Darrell Kezsler	18.39	17.81	36.2
Rick Savage/Bruce Berringer	18.34	16.58	34.92
Murphy Paypompee/Francis Kavanaugh	18.35	16.4	34.75
Mike Reid/Jeff Gustafson	17.91	15.68	33.59

In early October, Sean McAughey and I hooked up and filmed an episode for my TV show, Fishing with Gussy.  We had an awesome afternoon catching some big pike on Lake of the Woods...all caught on a Jackall Squad Minnow 128.  It's an oversized bass jerkbait that these big pike love!  Show will air sometime in the new year.  

Last week I was able to get out with a couple of Winnipeg Jets players, Anthony Peluso and Dustin Byfuglien.  We had a fun day on the water, catching a little bit of everything.  We started off musky fishing and had a couple of follows, but no biters.  We then caught a few walleyes, some smallmouths and largemouths.  A fun fall day of fishing.  

Here is Buff with a couple of big largemouths at the end of the day...

Look for some deer pictures coming up soon! 

Shoal Lake Last Chance tournament

The annual Shoal Lake Last Chance tournament took place this past weekend.  Anglers were greeted with some great fall weather, though the fishing probably would have been a little bit better had the water cooled down a little bit more.  

My buddy Dennis Favreau and I spent a few days prefishing and found that the largemouths were biting a lot better than the smallmouths for us so we fished for largemouths exclusively during the tournament.  Things worked out and we caught five good fish each day which were good enough to give us the tournament win.  

We weighed nearly identical bags each day and most of our fish were all the same size.  We caught them on a variety of baits but the best big fish bait of the weekend was a 5/8 oz Northland Jungle Jig.  Black/blue was the best colour.  We also caught a few fish on wacky rigged Jackall Flick Shake worms (6.8").  

Though our fish don't get as big as they do in the south, we have some excellent largemouth fishing on Lake of the Woods and Shoal Lake.  These were all chunky, healthy fish.  

1	16	Jeff Gustafson / Dennis Favereau		19.30		18.68	37.98
2	36	Joe Pritchard / Hiram Archibald		17.40	4.20	17.52	34.92
3	32	Jamie Bruce / John Frost		17.90		16.50	34.40
4	33	Mark Libitka / Bart Stebnitsky		17.70	4.12	16.46	34.16
5	28	Carl Greene / Kendrick Penace	4.34	19.46	4.36	14.52	33.98
6	3	Jim Gustafson / Rick Savage		16.94	4.30	17.02	33.96
7	8	Tim Strempler / Terry McClymont		17.22	4.18	16.72	33.94
8	18	Scott Dingwall / Jay Samsal		17.56	4.24	16.14	33.70
9	19	John / Marc Gujez		16.58	4.06	17.12	33.70
10	12	Alex / Amanda Kezler		17.08	3.88	16.58	33.66

Bassin' For Bucks

The 17th annual Bassin' For Bucks tournament took place last weekend in Sioux Narrows, on the south end of Lake of the Woods.  My good friend Mike Reid and I have fished the tournament together since we were 13 years old and have had several good finishes without ever winning the event.  Things went our way last weekend and were able to pull off the victory in the three day event.  

The highlight of the event happened on the third day when I caught my biggest northern bass ever - a 7.19 pound MONSTER!  It anchored out catch of 19.76 pounds and was a big part of our win.  We had three good days of fishing and weighed in seven smallmouths and eight largemouths over the course of the weekend.  We caught our fish on a variety of baits - some topwater, some on worms and a few on jigs.  

1st	82	Jeff Gustafson	Mike Reid	16.48	19.20	19.76	55.44
2nd	4	Ted Stewner	Louise Stewner	18.14	16.16	15.72	50.02
3rd	58	Jeff Engstrom	Connor Burton	15.53	16.32	15.90	47.75
4th	6	Matt Rydberg	Brian McNanney	17.82	16.41	13.26	47.49
5th	11	Troy Norman	Andy Carlson	14.98	15.74	16.53	47.25
6th	75	Bill Straight	Leo Heyens	18.44	15.45	13.36	47.25
7th	32	Norman Lindsay	Dave Lindsay	16.43	14.91	14.75	46.09
8th	107	Bill Senter	Brian Durham	15.49	13.55	15.54	44.58
9th	72	Bill McGhie	Ken McGhie	13.90	16.08	14.13	44.11
10th	5	Roger Harrison	Dorese Harrison	15.91	13.89	14.30	44.10

Mike and I had a great week of fishing, and caught some nice fish in practice.  Here is Mike with a nice largemouth he caught.  

We have been trying to win this tournament for many years, so this was a sweet win!  This event is a fun one, you can find more information at www.bassinforbucks.com 

Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship

The highlight of the summer for me happened in late July.  My good friend John Peterson and I won the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship, one of the premier, open team tournaments in North America.  This event takes place on Rainy Lake, which I feel is one of the BEST smallmouth fisheries in the World.  (www.canadianbass.com)

John and I had a great prefish for this tournament and opened the tournament strong, taking the early lead on day one with a five fish limit weighing 19.17 pounds. (pictured above)

The weather got nasty on day two with cold temperatures and high winds.  Fortunately we were able to put together a decent limit to hang around the top of the leaderboard heading into the final day.  After catching most of our fish on day one on topwater baits (Jackall SK Grande popper) we had to switch things up on day two, catching fish on tubes and spinnerbaits. 

The LakeMaster Woods/Rainy map card was very key in helping us find subtle sweetspots that held big smallmouths on Rainy Lake.  

The rough weather continued on day three but we were fortunate to get on a big school of smallmouths and put five of them in the boat.  We caught a really big bag on day three, weighing 20.35 pounds, which was enough to put us on top of the leaderboard at the end of the tournament.  

I have fished this tournament since 2000 and have several top five finishes so to finally win was pretty special.  This is a very tough tournament to win, with a competitive field.  Definitely one of the highlights of my fishing career so far!  John and I always have a great time fishing this event!   

Here is our plaque on the big trophy...
If you are interested in fishing the FFCBC next year, the event always takes place during the last weekend in July.  It's a top-notch tournament on one of the most beautiful lakes in the World.  I guarantee you'll have fun! www.canadianbass.com   

Bass tournaments

It's been a busy couple months fishing bass tournaments across the Sunset Country Region.  That's part of the reason I've been kinda slow on keeping up with my website.  We have a lot of fun fishing all of these great events, the only problem is our short summer goes by way to fast!  Our bass season is catch and release only through May and June, so there are no tournaments until July, then we have something going on nearly every weekend.  These are all community run events, with great fields and good payouts.  

The first tournament of the year was the Lake Despair Castin' For Cash event (www.lakedespairlodge.com), put on by Bill and Nell Godin at their resort.  August and I have won this tournament a couple of times and always have a good time fishing there.  We had a tougher than normal tournament this year, a combination of not finding a hot area with big fish and losing some good smallmouths.  We ended up with a 7th place finish in this 60 boat tournament.  The winners of this one were our buddies Jamie Bruce and Bryan Gustafson (pictured above).

Next up was the Shoal Lake Big Bass Classic, an annual event on one of our best bass fisheries in Sunset Country.  Chris Savage and I teamed up as usual but had probably our worst showing ever at this tournament.  We spent most of our time targeting largemoughs and just didn't get the right fish to bite.  We caught a mediocre 14 pounds per day to finish around 20th.  That's fishing. Ted and Louise Stewner won the tournament with 33 pounds of smallmouths.  Our good buddies Jay Samsal and Scott Dingwall took 2nd, thanks to a big day two, which included some big largemouths (pictured above).

The third weekend in July, August and I teamed up again for the Bronzeback Classic (www.bronzebackclassic.ca).  This was our second year fishing the tournament and for the second year in a row we ended up with a 5th place finish.  We had a great first day fishing around town, catching huge numbers of fish.  The second day we felt like we needed to try and catch a big bag to win the tournament and ran all over the lake trying to hunt down some big fish.  Unfortunately, things didn't work out and we ended up hitting the stuff we fished the first day for the last hour and a half of the day to catch our fish on day two.  We're looking forward to giving it another shot next year!  

The last weekend in July I fished the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship with my good buddy John Peterson from Minnesota.  We had a great tournament and ended up in 1st place!  Look for a seperate entry about this event.  

The Kenora Bass International (www.kbifishing.com) took place the second weekend in August.  Chris Savage and I hooked up for this one again, a tournament that we have had a lot of success at over the years, including a couple of wins.  

We came out blazing the first day, catching the biggest bag of the tournament, at 19.78 pounds.  It was a mixed bag of three largemouths and two smallmouths and was one of our best days ever in this event.  

Here was a big cull we had the first day, changing a two pounder for a five pounder!  We like to see those!  

We held onto the lead through day two, but ran out of gas on day three, bringing in only 11 pounds to end up 9th.  It was a disappointing finish for sure based on our first two days.  That's fishing though.  I think it was a combination of us running out of fish, a lot of angler pressure in the area we were fishing and the fish simply just not biting.  

Late in August I teamed up with Scott Dingwall for the International Falls Bass Championship (www.ifallsbass.com), which puts anglers on the U.S. side of Rainy Lake for a day and on the Rainy River for a day.  We have had a lot of success at this tournament over the years and have won the tournament three times.  We had a good tournament, ending up with a 2nd place finish.  The photo above was a giant smallmouth I caught during my day of practice on lake.  It was the first fish I caught out there!  

There are a few more tournaments coming up later in September, so look for the reports on those down the line.