Morrison and Gibbins win Emo Walleye Classic

By Lucas Punkari
Fort Frances Times

While this weekend marked the first time that they had fished as a tandem in the Emo Walleye Classic, the pairing of 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 tandem topped 39 other teams captured the 2013 EWC title on Saturday afternoon, which was the first for Morrison and the second for Gibbins, who had won the inaugural competition in 2002 with Harvey Cochrane.
“It feels great to finally win it,” enthused Morrison, who lives in Baudette, Minnesota.
“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,” Gibbins, who lives in Morson and is a four-time winner of the Rainy River Walleye Tournament, smiled.
“I had a clear schedule this weekend so I was able to take part with him,” he added.
Morrison Baudette
After finishing up Day 1 on Friday in fourth place with a four fish haul that came in at 8.35, Morrison and Gibbins returned to the exact same spot where they reeled in their walleye a day, but would soon discover that they would have to change their strategy if they wanted to win the title.
“It was pretty slow and we caught one good one while we there,” Gibbins explained.
“We made a run out West after that 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 haul of Rainy River walleye tipped the scales at 11.81 pounds, which was anchored by a 6.29-pound beauty that was the biggest single that crossed the stage on Saturday.
“We caught our two big ones of the day shortly after 2 p.m. in around a 20 minute span,” Morrison recalled.
“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 added.
“But in the end, it all worked out,” he smiled.
The father-daughter pairing of Irwin and Amber Hughes came home in second place with a weight of 18.63 pounds, which was helped out by a 7.97-pound ‘lunker’ on Day 1 that proved to be the tournament’s big fish.
Wilson and Lambert would come home in third place with a weight of 18.15 pounds, with Ed Carlson and Jason McQuakers taking fourth place honours with their two day weight of 17.80 pounds.
Grant Swire and Leroy Wilson rounded out the top five with a weight of 16.35 pounds, while Day 1 leaders Norm Hyatt and Bryan Bonot dropped to sixth place in the final standings with a final total weight of 15.83 pounds.
Defending champions Paul Allan and Jason Rostek came home in 14th place with a two-day weight of 8.02 pounds.