Saskatchewan premier fishes popular walleye tournament

On Saturday, 300 anglers took to Tobin Lake for the 25th Annual Premier’s Walleye Cup tournament in Nipawin, Saskatchewan, including one special participant: Premier Brad Wall.

The Premier’s Cup is one of the West’s most prestigious fishing tournaments, with 160 teams from Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, and even North and South Dakota in the hunt for thousands of dollars in prize money. This is the first time in its history that a Saskatchewan premier has actually competed in the Premier’s Cup.

Although a tournament novice, outdoor enthusiast Wall has some angling credentials—on his first walleye fishing trip he hauled a 12-pound, 32-inch greenback out of Lake Diefenbaker. “We let it go,” he told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. “I didn’t realize how rare that is. It’s like getting a hole in one. I haven’t caught one that big since,” Wall said.

And he didn’t on Saturday, either. The winning team, Albertans Justin Malachowski and Ryan Warawa, took home more than $32,000 after weighing in 10 fish for a total of 26.1 pounds. Wall and his partner, Ed Carleton, a friend since childhood, placed in the bottom third of the tournament.

Sask Premier Brad Wall en route to Nipawin for the Premier’s Walleye Cup tournament. Credit: Brad Wall/Twitter

However Wall did display his angling (and political) bona fides by offering several excuses for his team’s performance. The water was “very muddy,” he told the Globe and Mail newspaper. He also suggested that it had been  a tough day all around.

“Typically, this tournament has big, big weights that win… a lot of the guys were saying that the total two-day weight is what the good boats are (usually) getting on one day. That’s how tough it was.”

For more on fishing in Saskatchewan, see OC editor Patrick Walsh’s recent blog postings about Lloyd Lake Lodge.