Grandpa and grandson capture EWC

By Lucas Punkari
Fort Frances Times

A mix of youth and experience proved to be the successful combination at the tenth annual Emo Walleye Classic this past weekend, as Rod Woodgate and his grandson Dylan Swire took home this year’s title with a two day total of 19.67 pounds.
“I’m just thrilled,” Woodgate said after the final weigh-in.
“I never thought we would be able to do it, it’s just hard to believe,” Woodgate added.
After taking the top spot on Friday with a haul of 12.22 pounds, Woodgate and Swire would be the last team to make their way onto the stage on Saturday, where they needed 5.68 pounds to overtake the 2009 champions of Ted Heyens (of Stratton) and Kelvin Caul to retake the lead.
With the crowd at the Emo/LaVallee Arena on their side, the Devlin and Fort Frances based pairing brought in a four-fish total of 7.45 pounds, which was more than enough to give them the championship.
“I didn’t think we had enough to be honest,” Swire, whose dad Grant finished the event in 33rd spot, reasoned.
“I only thought we had five pounds before we put our fish onto the scales,” Swire added.
Heyens and Caul, who were looking to join the teams of Doug McBride/Steve Ballan and Bill Godin/Ralph Galusha as two-time champions, finished in the runner-up slot with a two-day haul of 17.89 pounds.
“Overall it was a pretty good result for the tournament,” Heyens said.
“We caught a couple of big fish on day one, but if we just had a couple of more pounds it could of been a bit closer,” Heyens reasoned.
Third place went to the Rainy River duo of Les Morrison and John Swentik with a total of 17.60 pounds, as their 10.95 pound haul on Saturday was the highest total for day two.
Having entered the day just outside the top ten, Morrison and Swentik dodged bullet after bullet as they sat on the hot seat through seven teams, before Heyens and Caul knocked them off of their perch.
“It was a surprise to us that we were able to stay up there that long, because there were a lot of good anglers that were coming in,” Swentik said.
Monte Mann and Ron Parks (17.41 pounds) and McBride/Ballan rounded out the top five.
The biggest single fish caught during the weekend came on Friday, as the team of Bryan Hughes and Trevor Croswell hauled in a 5.96-pounder.