Lucas Punkari
A mix of youth and experience proved to be the successful combination at the 10th-annual Emo Walleye Classic as Rod Woodgate and his grandson, Dylan Swire, took home this year’s title with a two-day total of 19.67 pounds.
“I’m just thrilled,” Woodgate said after the final weigh-in Saturday afternoon.
“I never thought we would be able to do it, it’s just hard to believe,” he added.
After sitting in top spot on Friday with a haul of 12.22 pounds, the duo were the last team to make their way onto the stage on Saturday, where they needed 5.68 pounds to overtake 2009 champions Ted Heyens and Kelvin Caul.
With the crowd at the Emo/La Vallee Community Centre on their side, the Devlin and Fort Frances-based pairing brought in a four-fish total of 7.45 pounds, which was more than enough to give them the crown.
“I didn’t think we had enough, to be honest,” admitted Swire, whose dad, Grant, finished in 33rd spot.
“I only thought we had five pounds before we put our fish onto the scales,” Swire added.
Heyens and Caul, who were looking to join Doug McBride/Steve Ballan and Bill Godin/Ralph Galusha as two-time EWC champs, finished in the runner-up slot with a two-day haul of 17.89 pounds.
“Overall it was a pretty good result for the tournament,” Heyens said.
“We caught a couple of big fish on Day 1,” he noted. “But if we just had a couple of more pounds, it could of been a bit closer.”
Third place went to the Rainy River duo of Les Morrison and John Swentik with a total of 17.60 pounds.
Their 10.95-pound haul on Saturday was the highest total for Day 2.
Having entered the day just outside the top 10, Morrison and Swentik dodged bullet after bullet as they sat on the “hot seat” through seven teams before Heyens and Caul knocked them off of their perch.
“It was a surprise to us that we were able to stay up there that long because there were a lot of good anglers that were coming in,” Swentik noted.
Rounding out the top five were Monte Mann and Ron Parks (17.41 pounds) and McBride/Ballan (15.14).
Godin and Galusha, the defending champs, ended up finishing sixth (14.89).
They got off to a rough start, bringing in just 4.18 pounds on Friday before rebounding with a 10.71-pound haul on Day 2.
Bryan Hughes and Trevor Croswell had the big fish of the tournament—a 5.96-pounder they brought in Friday.
