Joey Payeur
Every competitive and recreational angler searches for that one big fish they always will remember.
That’s the fish that ended up in the live well of Ted Heyens and Kelvin Caul—and it won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
Heyens latched onto a mammoth 8.79-pounder Saturday morning for the big fish of the tournament, which put the Stratton resident and his Devlin teammate over the top with a two-day total of 23.94 pounds to easily win the 15th-annual Emo Walleye Classic by more than 5.5 pounds.
“I first thought it might be a sturgeon because I had to lift it off the bottom, which is what you have to do with sturgeons,” noted Heyens.
“It was a pretty good struggle for two or three minutes.”
He and Caul, who earned the first-place prize of $6,000, captured their second EWC crown after topping the field back in 2009.
The pair sat in second place after Day 1 (11.06), but used their jaw-dropping lunker to put together the only double-digit total of Day 2 (12.88) to improve significantly on last year’s 18th-place finish.
It also vaulted them past Les Morrison of Baudette and Morson’s Oliver Gibbons, who led after Day 1 (13.55) but had to settle for third (16.81) when they could only scrape together 2.96 pounds on Day 2.
In between those two teams was one-half of the two-time defending champs.
Bill Godin, who won the last two EWC crowns, and an unprecedented four overall, with fellow Devlin resident Ralph Galusha before the team split up this year, combined with 11-year-old Nolan Mann of Fort Frances to wind up second overall (18.39).
Devlin’s Paul Soucy and his Emo-based son, Eric, grabbed fourth place (13.33), followed by Emo’s Cody Drennan and Clint Brown from Nestor Falls in fifth (13.29).
Dan Pollard (Emo) and his son, Josh, of Dryden slipped to sixth overall with a two-day mark of 13.07.
Brendan Loney (Emo) and Shane Scott (Kenora) had the big fish of Day 1 at 5.63 pounds.
But the pair had to change boats on Day 2 due to mechanical issues and fell to seventh (12.64).
Emo’s Jon Blattner and Devlin’s Amanda Meyers settled for eighth (12.63).
The furthest travelling team in Frank Grunewald (Red Lake) and Frank McWhinnie (Balmertown) finished in ninth spot (11.84).
The Emo father-son duo of Todd and Kalin Grennier put together two five-plus pound days to round out the top 10 (10.90).
A total of 37 teams participated this year—up eight from last year’s record low of 29.
