Gill and Hanson duo win second M.B.I.

Ken Johnston
Editor

It was very close after day 1 of fishing at the Morson Bass International tournament. Only 1.52 lbs. separated the sixth and first place spots.
It was even closer between 1st and 2nd. At the top of the pack after day 1 it was Doug Vandersteen and Mark Pentney with 16.92 lbs. Right behind them was last year’s second place finishers Terry Gill (Morson) and Chad Hanson (Fort Frances) with 16.87 lbs.
Rounding out the top six in day 1 was Bill & Bryce Godin (3rd-16.15 lbs.), Al Wolanicki and Doug Jorgenson (4th-15.75), Jeff Gustafson and Mike Salvador (5th-15.55 lbs.) and last year’s champs Oliver and Jason Gibbins with 15.40 lbs.
Since the top five were saved until last to weigh-in on day 2, Oliver and Jason Gibbins vaulted to the top of the leader board when they weighed five bass at 13.71 to lead almost to the end with 29.11 lbs. Their lead held on until the second place team from day 1 weighed in. Terry Gill and Chad Hanson then tipped the scales with the biggest basket of the weekend at 17.75 lbs. to take the lead at 34.62 lbs.
Only Vandersteen and Pentney were left but they could not catch Gill and Hanson, only weighing 14.15 lbs. to finish 2nd with 31.07 lbs.
Hansen and Gill, who have fished the Morson Bass Classic and the MBI for eight years in total, had their best showing ever. While they netted the biggest basket of the tournament on day 2, both said fishing was tougher on Sunday. “We struggled to get these bites,” said Terry adding, “It was a hard day.”
Gill said the most exciting part of the day was when they both ended up with fish on. “I casted out and he was jigging. We got his fish up but lost mine.”
The pair mostly fished reefs and used tubes for the most part. “It was slow. We would get about a bite an hour,” said Hanson. He noted they did cull out two three pounders at the end of the second day.
Surprisingly there were only a few of Large Mouth Bass caught at the tournament. Two of which were caught by Mike Salvador and Jeff Gustafson. Gustafson who likes to fish large mouth bass said the biggest problem is the low lake levels. “Hopefully next year there are higher levels and we can catch all large mouth.” The two they caught earned them $250 each of the two days for the largest large mouths at 4.01 lbs. and 2.14 lbs. “We even culled out a larger smallie today (day 2) thinking no one else would catch one and it worked,” said Gustafson.
The largest Small Mouth Bass caught were brought in by Bill and Bryce Godin (day 1) at 4.42 lbs. and Terry Gill and Chad Hanson (day 2) at 4.24 lbs.; earning them each $250.
Hidden weight was 21.80 lbs. The team closest to that without going over was the 10th place finishers Kirk Wood and Pete Tiboni, Jr. with 21.54 lbs. They won a 14 ft. Lund Boat.
Early bird winners were Ron Mazur and Rick Zebleckis. They won a trolling motor.
Prize payouts were as follows:
Day 1:
1st Doug Vandersteen/Mark Pentney $500
2nd Terry Gill/Chad Hanson $300
3rd Bill and Bryce Godin $200
Day 2:
1st Terry Gill/Chad Hanson $500
2nd Gerry and Dan Hanson $300
3rd Doug Vandersteen/Mark Pentney $200
Overall Tournament
1st Terry Gill/Chad Hanson $3,500
2nd Doug Vandersteen/Mark Pentney $2,000
3rd Oliver and Jason Gibbins $1,350
4th Gerry and Dan Hanson $950
5th Jeff Gustafson and Mike Salvador $700
6th Bill and Bryce Godin $500
MBI Chairman Tony Gill said that he felt the event went “fabulous!” He noted that MBI purchased special software for tabulating the results and that made things go much smoother than in the past. “The only thing I would like to see is more teams next year.” There were 27 this year down one from last year.
There were 225 fish caught over the two days with about half of the teams getting the maximum of ten.