Lucas Punkari
Fishing is an activity that often is passed down from generation to generation, and is something that often brings families together.
So what better pairing than the grandfather-and-grandson team of Rod Woodgate and Dylan Swire to capture the 10th-annual Emo Walleye Classic over the weekend.
“It sure is great to do this, especially with my grandson,” said Woodgate, who lives in Devlin.
“I wouldn’t want to fish with anyone else,” he added.
After jumping into top spot of the 52-team field on Friday with an impressive 12.22-pound haul, Woodgate and Swire were the first team to launch from the starting area in Emo on Saturday morning—and immediately headed upstream towards the dam at Fort Frances.
“It was a lot tougher out there today [Saturday] than it was on the first day,” admitted Swire, who lives in Fort Frances.
“Yesterday was just great out there for us,” added Woodgate.
“We caught three 23-inchers and a 20-incher that we threw away,” he enthused. “And when I threw out my first cast of the day, we were able to catch a fish.”
But as rain began to fall on the anglers on the Rainy River later in the afternoon, the fortunes quickly turned around for the family tandem.
“As soon as it started to rain out there, we began to catch our fish,” Woodgate recalled.
“We didn’t care if it was pouring out or not at that point,” he added.
Once their boat was taken out of the water, Woodgate and Swire had to wait until the very end of the final weigh-in at the Emo/La Vallee Community Centre to see if they would capture their first EWC title.
They needed 5.68 pounds to reclaim the top spot from 2009 champions Ted Heyens and Kelvin Caul.
When the scales rang up their four walleyes at 7.45 pounds, Woodgate and Swire were able to breathe a sigh of relief as they took home the title.
“It was really surprising,” Swire admitted.
“It’s still really hard to believe. I thought we were done,” added Woodgate.
It also was a heart-stopping few moments for Swire’s dad, Grant, who was watching on from the arena floor after finishing the tournament in 33rd position with his partner, Leroy Wilson.
“They were just absolutely stone-faced up there the whole time, which I think Dylan gets from his grandfather,” Grant Swire noted.
“[But] as soon as they pulled that last fish out, I knew that they had enough to win.
“I’m pretty sure that I’ll be getting some tips from him for the next week,” he smiled.
Back on the stage, meanwhile, Heyens and Caul felt as though they had a good shot at joining Doug McBride/Steve Ballan and Bill Godin/Ralph Galusha as two-time winners of the EWC.
“At first we thought we were okay because they were not very big fish that they were pulling out,” Heyens remarked.
“But once they pulled out a four-pounder from the live well, we both knew that they were in pretty good shape.”
Despite finishing in second place, Heyens was very excited to see a family team come away with the trophy and $9,500 first prize.
“It’s great to see, and it just goes to show you that you don’t need a big boat and all of the best equipment in order to win,” he stressed.
“It’s also really good for the future of the event, too, because it’ll help to keep the families in it,” he added.
Heyens and Caul finished with a two-day total of 17.89 pounds, which gave them their second top three showing in the last three years.
Rounding out the podium were the Rainy River tandem of Les Morrison and John Swentik, who vaulted from 11th place on Friday to third in the final standings, with a total of 17.60 pounds, thanks to a 10.95-pound haul on Saturday.
But despite hauling in the biggest catch of the day, both Swentik and Morrison didn’t believe they had enough to take over top spot from then leaders and defending champs, Godin and Galusha.
“I was really worried about what Bill and Ralph had come out with,” Morrison admitted.
“We had no idea what we had at that point, and once we got into the arena, we found out that we had to beat them,” he added.
Once the two found out they easily had enough to take over first place, both anglers were forced to sweat it out in the “hot seat” as the top 10 teams from Day One made their way into the arena.
After dodging seven bullets, including McBride and Ballan, who they were “most worried about,” Morrison and Swentik finally were knocked off of their perch by the 7.56-pound showing by Heyens and Caul.
“When they pulled out two little ones at first, we didn’t think we were looking too bad,” Swentik remarked.
“Then they pulled out the bigger ones, and we knew we were done.”
The third-place finish was a massive bounce back for the 2008 runner-ups after they were skunked in last year’s tournament.
“We’ve been at both ends of the barrel over the last couple of years,” Swentik noted.
“This year was huge for us, especially after what happened last year, so it was really nice to have a great showing here,” he added.
Rounding out the top five were Monte Mann and Ron Parks (17.41 pounds) and McBride/Ballan (15.14).
As for Godin/Galusha, the defending champions ended up in sixth with a two-day total of 14.89 pounds.
After getting off to a rough start on Friday, where they brought in just 4.18 pounds, they bounced back nicely on Saturday with an impressive haul of 10.71 pounds.
The biggest fish of the tournament was a 5.96-pounder brought in by Bryan Hughes and Trevor Croswell on Friday.
