River walleye kings! Bill Godin and Ralph Galusha win 9th RRWT

By Ken Johnston
Editor

It was a weekend of mixed elements that saw Bill Godin and Ralph Galusha of Devlin win the 9th Annual Rainy River Walleye Tournament (RRWT).
Early on day 1 (Friday), the weather was absolutely horrid. Heavy rains, lightning and hail saw the beginning of the day put on hold for about 15 minutes. Anglers sat in their boats while about an inch of rain drenched them and kept their bilge pumps running. Many said it was absolutely miserable.
But every coin has two sides. The weather was bad but the fishing was really good that day with most of the big fish being caught early in the day, just after the storm had passed.
Godin and Galusha were in 7th place after day 1 with 12.54 lbs. just 3.16 lbs. behind former champs Mike Vacura and Marnie Korpi of Roseau who had a huge basket at 15.7 lbs.
But the flipside of the coin saw the weather turn very summerlike on day 2 (Saturday). Dry anglers found fishing to be a real struggle. Many reported catching few walleye and those that did catch more than their four fish said that there were many small ones; under 12 inches. That struggle held true for the top day 1 team. They only caught two small fish to weigh in 2.04 lbs. and drop from 1st to 10th overall. “We just had a really bad day of fishing, catching more logs than anything,” said Korpi.
For Godin and Galusha, they were really shocked to win. “We did not think we would hold out knowing there were some really good anglers coming through the tent,” said Godin. “This is unreal. Never after winning (the) Emo Walleye Classic (this spring) did we think we would win Rainy River,” added Godin.
After weighing in another 10.68 lbs. on day 2, Godin and Galusha were the top team with only the top five from day 1 to come. The first of the five to come through the tent, Dean and Brian St. Pierre, of Rainy River, had 12.88 lbs. on day 1 which included the biggest fish of the tournament at 8.08 lbs. But they struggled on day 2, weighing in only one fish and dropping to 29th overall.
Tom Briggs of Baudette and Rob Dorry of Warroad came next. Last year they finished third and were hoping to win it all this year. They had 13.02 lbs. on day 1 and added 8.74 lbs day 2; not quite enough to unseat the Devlin duo.
Fred Foulger of RR and Dickie Byrnes of Fort Frances made another journey through the tent on day 2 having 13.12 lbs. on day 1. The pair were hoping to break the “Day 2 Curse” so many people have said they have on them. They have probably been in the top five boat parade more times than any other team and in just about every case were pretty much skunked on day 2. Well they did not get skunked, but only weighed in 5.48 lbs. (three fish) dropping to 7th overall.
Dan Hanson of RR and Chad Jackson of Fort Frances, were 2nd on day 1 with 13.66 lbs. As it turned out they were the last real threat to bumping Godin and Galusha. They weighed in four fish but like so many anglers on day 2 they just weren’t as big as the first day’s catch. They added 6.88 lbs. to finish 5th overall with 20.54 lbs.
With Vacura and Korpi tanking on day 2 Godin and Galusha were declared the 2007 RRWT Champs and the 2007 River Champs, having the largest combined weight from EWC and RRWT.
Also finishing strong on the weekend was Cliff Westover of RR and Mark Jodoin of Pinewood. They had nice fish both days weighing in 11.14 lbs. on day 1 and 10.52 lbs. on day 2 to finish third with 21.66 lbs., 1/10th of a pound behind Briggs and Dorry who finished 2nd with 21.76 lbs.
Dan and Bryce Godin also had two consistent days, registering 10.86 lbs. on day 1 and 10.32 lbs. the second day to finish fourth with 21.18 lbs.
The top team, Godin and Galusha, said that they did pretty good in prefishing. They went west on day 1 fishing two spots with one yielding the best results. Again they went a couple of miles west on day 2, catching a few nice ones early on. Then in the afternoon they decided to make a run east. “It was a good move as we were able to trade some fish up,” said Godin.
With the rough weather and wind on Friday they spent most of the day jigging. “It was too hard to troll as we had to control the boat in the wind,” said Galusha.
Day 2 they mixed it up, trolling and jigging. Galusha said that they had the best results on pink jigs and shiners.
“These tournaments are hard to win,” added Galusha.
“This will be hard to top. We had hoped for River King,” said Godin, “To win both is once in a life time.”
Godin said that is very thankful that his nephew Bryce Godin (who finished fourth) shared some of his secrets for river fishing with him this year. He is also grateful to his dad Almer Godin who helped them in prefishing and made their sandwiches for the tournament.
The prize payout was as follows:
1st-Bill Godin/Ralph Galusha $15,000
2nd-Tom Briggs/Rob Dorry $7,500
3rd-Cliff Westover/Mark Jodoin $3,500
4th-Dan and Bryce Godin $2,800
5th-Dan Hanson/Chad Jackson $2,000
6th-Doug Jorgenson/Al Wolanicki $1,400
7th-Fred Foulger/Dickie Byrnes $1,300
8th-Rick and Mark Thompson $1,200
9th-Ed Carlson/Ron Skyberg $1,100
10th-Mike Vacura/Marnie Korpi $1,000
11th-Ted and Leo Heyens $700
12th-Bill Stay and Bryan Barron $600
13th-Doug McBride/Steve Ballan $500
14th-Bob Jenson/Dana Kaliska $400
15th-Sean Westman/Dave Oldakowski $300
Editor’s Note: Rick Amundsen, who finished 2nd last year, and his partner Clayton Keister, were in 12th place after the weighins. However, they were disqualified by the RRWT committee for having allegedly docked on the U.S. side during the tournament, which is contrary to tournament rules.
Hidden Wt. Day 1 (4.17 lbs.) Dennis and Colleen Barnard $300
Hidden Wt. Day 2 (8.84 lbs.) Rick and Mark Thompson $300
Blaine Ivall Memorial Big Fish Award Day 1-Dean and Brian St. Pierre $500
Tom Kreger Memorial Big Fish Award Day 2-Dave and Darren Armstrong $500
River Champs Bill Godin/Ralph Galusha $600
Top Princecraft Team Dan Hanson/Chad Jackson $1,000
Lionel Robert Memorial Biggest Basket of Tournament Mike Vacura/Marnie Korpi $1,000.
The angler’s boat raffle (a 12’ Princecraft) was won by Dickie Byrnes.
The RR Playschool Boat was won by Ken Mason of Rainy River. Winning cash in that draw was Jody Gouliquer of Bergland-$1,500, Paul Clark of Fort Frances-$1,000 and Dan Hanson of RR-$500.
A two day bet between Shawn Hartnell and his dad James Hartnell over who’s team would be higher in the standings after the tournament ended was decided on the stage at the RRWT. James and his partner Dorothy Leininger finished 26th while Shawn and his partner Sonny Gibbons came in 50th. Losing the bet Shawn agreed to have his head shaved. Well the shaving turned into a fundraising effort for the Cancer Society. People lined up to pay to shave Shawn’s head. While he was being shaved he offered money to have James shave his too. He did and in the end the pair raised $928.41 for the cause.