MFN Tournament organizers Crystel Vallee (left) and Jessica Naveau (right) surround tournament winners John Labine and Jeff Vipond.

MFN Tournament organizers Crystel Vallee (left) and Jessica Naveau (right) surround tournament winners John Labine and Jeff Vipond.

Eighty-five teams made up of 170 anglers braved cold, wet mornings at the 2015 Mattagami First Nation Fall Classic Walleye Tournament.  This event is the fifth of six events on the NOWT circuit.

Day one of fishing started off in the morning with  a temperature of only 3 degrees. The wind blew in from the north, along with some cold rain.  The day only presented a high of 12 which made it a chilly day to hunt down quality walleyes on Mattagami Lake.

Despite the challenging weather the team of Shane Turcotte and Pierre Beaulieu managed to weigh in the day’s biggest bag of fish at 16.84 pounds.  The duo also took top honours for largest walleye of the day with a weight of 9.51 pounds!

Rounding out the top 3 on day one were the teams of Miguel Tailleur/ Denis Tailleur (14.66 lbs) and Rock Bouchard/Craig Salmonson (14.23 lbs).  The weights for top 10 were very close and any team could bounce back.

Day 2 brought slightly warmer temperatures in the morning and a much nicer day for the afternoon. The results showed several top 10 teams bring in significantly lower weights.

Leading the pack on day 2 was the team of Jeff Vipond and John Labine with a catch weighing in at 14.76 pounds, who were in 5th place the day before (13.67 lbs).

The teams of Jody Villeneuve/Chad Vis (13.06 lbs) and Denis Martin/Perry  Caverson (12.44 lbs) rounded out the top 3 teams for day 2.

But, in the end consistency is what paid off for the overall rankings.

Third place went to the team of Jody Villeneuve and Chad Vis.  Their day 1 weight of 10.77 pounds combined with their 13.06 pounds on day 2 saw them jump from 11th to 3rd place.  They also took the big fish prize for the day with their 8.67 pound walleye.

Second place team of Miguel and Denis Tailleur weighed in a smaller bag (11.04 lbs) on Sunday, but that managed to keep the team at second place overall.

Jeff Vipond and John Labine added 14.76 pounds to their 5th place, day 1 weight of 13.67 pounds for a weekend total of 28.43 pounds, putting them at the head of the field and earning the top prize for the weekend.

Congratulations to all anglers for participating in the tournament.

The MFN organizers put on an incredibly run weekend.  Thank you to the committee and all volunteers on this success!

Final results for the 2015 Mattagami Fall Classic Walleye.