KENORA – Any tournament win is a big one for an angler.
For Kenora’s Bryan Gustafson and Jamie Bruce, Saturday’s triumph on Lake of the Woods was huge for a couple of reasons.
Not only did the duo win the Kenora Bass International for the second time, but it also marked the first time they had finished in first place in the prestigious event since 2014.
“We’ve been close lots since, so to win it again was pretty awesome for both of us,” said Gustafson, who grew up in Fort Frances.
“We really tried to soak it all up, sit back and enjoy it.”
Bruce, who has been finishing with Gustafson in the tournament since 2008, said this year’s win meant a lot with the extra buzz that was surrounding the event.
“We’ve never seen this many boats in the tournament and I’ve never seen that many people in the crowd for the weigh-ins,” Bruce said.
“I’ve been travelling around the United States doing Bassmaster tournaments for the last few years, but there’s something about the KBI crowd and the atmosphere that’s not comparable to anywhere else.”
Gustafson and Bruce took the lead on Thursday with a total weight of 20.16 pounds and never looked back.
They finished the three-day event with a haul of 56.35 pounds, which allowed them to beat the Manitoba-based duo of Maat Haarsma and Jamie Hubataka by a little over two-and-a-half pounds.
“This year was unique in the sense that anyone in the top 10 had a chance going into Saturday,” Gustafson said. “There was a two-pound difference between first and 10th, so anyone could have had a 20-pound bag and won it.
“Around 10:30 to 11 in the morning, we kind of had nothing, and we just said ‘Well, we just got to run some new water,’ and we picked up a bass almost every hour right until the end.
“We actually ended up getting one of our biggest bass about 10 minutes before check-in. When it’s your time, it’s your time and when it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”
Bruce said that one of the biggest similarities between the two wins was the fact that the water was high on Lake of the Woods.
“Any time that happens, it opens up a lot of shallow water that usually isn’t fishable,” Bruce added.
“It just lets you go way shallower and fish in a super shallow style that is kind of being lost with the electronics that have been used in the last few years.”
One of the biggest challenges for this year’s event was some unseasonable weather conditions on Thursday and Friday.
“This was arguably one of the windiest and coldest events of all time,” Gustafson said. “It was the first time that I’ve ever worn long johns and a tuque in August.
“It made a lot of the lake unfishable and you really had to watch what you were doing. You had to make good decisions so that you weren’t breaking your gear and be sure that you were fishing properly for the conditions.”
The duo won’t have long to rest on their laurels as they are each competing in tournaments this weekend
Gustafson is off to Atikokan for the town’s annual Bass Classic, while Bruce is heading down to Walker, Minn., for the Bassmaster Open tour stop on Leech Lake.
“There’s pretty much something happening all the way through the fall,” Gustafson said.
“You never know which tournament is going to be the last one that you win, so we’re just trying to appreciate all of them.”
