In the 9-second Facebook video below, professional bass angler Jeff Gustafson is competing in the 2026 Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship on Rainy Lake in Ontario. It’s a team tournament; the two anglers keep their largest five bass each day to bring to the weigh-in stage.
Jeff is fishing with his buddy John Peterson. Out of the 118 teams, Jeff and John finished in 15th place, with a three-day total of 51.97 pounds (15 smallmouth bass). FYI: The winners ended up with 15 bass for 63.17 pounds.
Jeff wrote the following in describing what you’re about to see:
“On the final day of the tournament on the weekend, I lost a new rod and reel and had no idea what happened. (I had a panicked look around the boat for about a minute after this clip). I actually had a camera rolling, so I just looked through the footage and found where I caused the rod to go overboard.
"We got into a school of fish and some chaos was happening in front of the boat. I wanted to release the small bass on the other side of the boat so it didn’t just zoom down into the school and spook the others. I guess I hit my rod leaning over the side of the boat just perfect. Costly mistake! There is now a G. Loomis NRX+ at the bottom of Rainy Lake!”
P.S. Be sure to turn up the volume on the video for best viewing.
