Women’s team excels at EWC

Normally the team that finishes the Emo Walleye Classic in 13th spot doesn’t generate a great deal of interest among the spectators on hand for the final weigh-in.
Thirteen certainly is a very respectable accomplishment, but the fans tend to reserve their loudest cheers for the teams that finish in the top three.
What set apart this year’s 13th-place finishers was not the type of rods and lures they used. Nor was it the boat they competed in against the 59 other teams trying to catch the largest walleye on the Rainy River during the two-day tournament this past weekend.
What made them different, and therefore generated a great deal of interest among fans and fellow anglers alike, was the fact they were both women.
Sadie Smith and Jeannie Sheppard, an aunt-and-niece team from Emo, captured the hearts of many fans in attendance during the weigh-in on Day 1 when their catch totalled an impressive 5.04 pounds.
The result put them in seventh-place heading into the second day of fishing Saturday.
The strong showing surprised even Smith, who said that heading into the tournament, she only had hoped for an improvement over her 46th-place showing a year ago.
“I thought we might do a lot better, but I didn’t expect to be in the top 10,” she admitted. “For two of us women, it was nice to be up there in the high ranks.”
“We just wanted to get our four fish and that was good enough,” Sheppard added. “We were happy to see where we were at.”
As a result of their top 10 performance on Day 1, Smith and Sheppard earned themselves the right to be weighed-in last with the rest of the top teams on Saturday.
One of the most exciting aspects of the Emo Walleye Classic is the manner in which the final 10 teams are weighed-in.
Instead of simply walking into the arena and up onto the stage from the side door entrance, the top 10 finishers from Day 1 are towed—still sitting in their boats—into the arena in reverse order from 10 to one.
The teams then remove their final day’s catch one at a time from their live-well as the fans cheer them on.
When it came time for Smith and Sheppard to take their place in the parade, the pair was nervous due to all the extra attention.
“It was nerve-wracking up there,” Smith remarked.
“And when we were sitting in the back and hearing all that, I said to my partner, ‘You know what? They’re talking about us out there. All that screaming and hollering, that’s for us.’
“We were stressed.”
Their nerves quickly turned to gratitude, however, as the fans roared for the women as they entered the arena tossing candy and toys into the crowd for the kids in attendance.
“They [the crowd] were pretty awesome,” Sheppard said.
“I was almost in tears. It was great,” she added. “I didn’t realize we would have such a crowd.”
Smith and Sheppard could not match their impressive Day 1 catch but still managed a respectable 3.70 pounds on Day 2—good enough for 13th spot overall.
Emcee Lionel Robert gleefully announced to the crowd that of the many fishing tournaments he had been a part of over the years, Smith and Sheppard were the highest-ranked all-women team he’d ever seen.
Both believe they are part of a growing trend.
“I think so,” Smith replied when asked if she thought more women were taking up the sport of fishing. “Now that they know we can do it.”
“I grew up fishing,” Sheppard added. “I always fished with my dad and it’s an awesome sport. More women should get into it.”
Smith and Sheppard were the highest-ranked all-women’s team at this year’s EWC, but they weren’t the only one.
Tricia and Liz Bombay finished in 48th spot with a two-day total of 5.12 pounds while Jane Brigham and Shirley McQuaker finished 55th with 4.04 pounds altogether.