The fifth annual Rafferty Reservoir Walleye Cup (RRWC) saw anglers converge on Mainprize Regional Park on May 18 and 19. This year marked the first time the derby was held over two days.
Lance Marcotte and Karen Soke, both from Estevan, took home the first place prize of $10,000 with a two-day weight of 32.93 pounds for their 10 fish. Their fish weighed in at 15.80 pounds on the first day and 17.13 the second.
Not only that, but they won several other prize categories, including top mixed team and top Central Walleye Trail (CWT) members.
They also won the first RRWC back in 2015.
With a second place finish of 30.40 pounds (15.16 pounds the first day and 15.24 the second), Clayton Harkins of Bienfait and Darren Anton of Estevan took home an Alumacraft boat package, valued at $5,500. Rounding out the top three were Paul Skoczylas of Estevan and Mike Reid of Virden, Man., who weighed in a two-day total of 10 fish at 30.09 pounds (12.02 and 18.07 pounds), and won $2,500.
Other big winners for the 2019 RRWC were Quintin Becker and Jay Zadorozniak, both of Radville, who weighed in a 7.66-pound walleye for the biggest fish of the tournament and $960 in cash. The father-son team of Brad Graham of Bienfait and Travis Graham of Carievale took home $1,000 for the Cool Under Pressure prize, having moved up 30 spots from day one, when they caught 9.46 pounds, to day two, when they caught 13.52 pounds. They finished 24th with 22.98 pounds of fish.
A prize was also handed out to the top Weyburn area team, which was Lyman Sargent of Weyburn and Colton Tochor of North Weyburn. They received a prize pack worth $600.
The Rafferty Reservoir Walleye Cup began in 2015 as the first CWT qualifier in Saskatchewan. It launched as a one-day tournament with 55 boats during the Victoria Day long weekend at Mainprize Regional Park, and grew steadily until 2018, when the anglers themselves voted overwhelmingly to make it a two-day event. In addition to drawing anglers from across Canada and the northern U.S. to the southeast region, the RRWC has become the first Saskatchewan fishing tournament in more than a decade to be televised, courtesy of Access Communications. The RRWC is one of four fishing tournaments hosted by IOMPresents (the events management division of Innovative Outdoorsman Marketing Ltd.) and is also the first stop on the Sask. Slam, which is a provincial catch and release walleye tournament trail.
IOMPresents will next host the Boundary Bass Classic on Boundary Dam on June 15.
