Lucas Punkari
The 11th-annual Emo Walleye Classic got underway this morning as 42 teams hit the waters of the Rainy River, with most racing towards the dam in Fort Frances after departing from the Front Street boat launch.
The hottest topic of conversation among the 84 anglers this morning was the ever-changing weather conditions, with the skies changing from overcast to sunny as the boats were put into the water.
“Things are going to be a lot different out there today, especially with the wind we are seeing,” said two-time EWC champ Steve Ballan.
“The river’s also starting to go up, as well, so everyone’s going to have adjust from what they were doing earlier this week,” added Doug McBride, who also has won twice with Ballan.
“For us, the pre-fishing was okay as we caught a lot of little ones, but nothing big,” Ballan noted.
“So we’ll see what happens.”
Those thoughts on the pre-fishing were shared by the duo of Bryan Hughes and Corey Curtis, who are looking to improve upon an eighth-place showing last year.
“For us, the fishing wasn’t very good,” Hughes remarked. “But we were kind of able to come across them at the end, so we have a little bit of confidence going into today.
“With the weather the way it is right now, I think you are going to see some slower fishing,” he added.
“And with the water levels continuing to rise, you are going to have to keep on moving.”
But while many questions remained unanswered prior to launch time this morning, Curtis was looking forward to finally getting underway.
“We’re just going to go out there and get our four fish,” he remarked.
“It might be a little slow at first this morning, but we’ll see what happens and we hope to get that one big fish to go with three little ones,” Curtis added.
The Day 1 weigh-in will begin at 3:30 p.m. at the Emo/La Vallee Arena.
The teams will be back on the water tomorrow starting at 8 a.m., with the final weigh-in again getting underway at 3:30 p.m.
