Lucas Punkari
While this weekend marked the first time they had fished as a tandem in the Emo Walleye Classic, Les Morrison and Oliver Gibbins were able to use their years of experience on the Rainy River to their advantage.
Thanks to a two-day weight of 20.16 pounds, the pair topped 37 other teams to capture the 2013 EWC title Saturday afternoon, which was the first for Morrison and the second for Gibbins, who won the inaugural competition in 2002 with Harvey Cochrane.
“It feels great to finally win it,” enthused Morrison, who lives in Baudette, Mn.
“There’s a lot of good fishermen out here and it’s really nice to come out on top for once,” he added.
“I’m just glad Les asked me to fish with him,” smiled Gibbins, who lives in Morson and is a four-time winner of the Rainy River Walleye Tournament.
“I had a clear schedule this weekend, so I was able to take part with him,” he noted.
After finishing Day 1 on Friday in fourth place with a four-fish haul that came in at 8.35 pounds, Morrison and Gibbins returned to the same spot on Day 2—but soon discovered they had to change strategy if they wanted to win the title.
“It was pretty slow and we caught one good one while we there,” Gibbins recalled.
“We made a run out west that was about 15 to 16 miles away from where we launched in Emo, and that was where we ended up catching the rest of our fish,” he added.
Needing at least 9.81 pounds to overtake leaders Terry Wilson and James Lambert, Gibbins and Morrison did just that as their Day 2 haul tipped the scales at 11.81 pounds—anchored by a 6.29-pound beauty that was the biggest fish to cross the stage Saturday.
“We caught our two big ones of the day shortly after 2 p.m. in around a 20-minute span,” Morrison said.
“We thought it was going to be really close when we went brought our fish in, so we were pretty nervous as they weighed our fish,” Gibbins admitted.
“But in the end, it all worked out,” he smiled.
The father-daughter pairing of Irwin and Amber Hughes took second place with a total weight of 18.63 pounds, aided by a 7.97-pound lunker on Day 1 that proved to be the big fish of the tournament.
Wilson and Lambert would up in third place with 18.15 pounds, followed by Ed Carlson and Jason McQuaker in fourth (17.80).
Grant Swire and Leroy Wilson rounded out the top five (16.35).
Day 1 leaders Norm Hyatt and Bryan Bonot dropped to sixth place in the final standings with a total of 15.83 pounds.
Defending champs Paul Allan and Jason Rostek finished in 14th place overall with a two-day weight of 8.02 pounds.
