The Eskimo Ice Fishing Gear Tournament at Warner Road took place February 2nd on Lake Winnipeg. This was Qualifying event #2 on the Road to the Busch Beer Icebreaker Elite Series Championship in March. It was another frigid and super windy day on the ice, but the fishing was absolutely on fire for many of the teams competing.
The father and son team of Jaymes Hiebert and Randy Hiebert have undoubtedly been the best greenback walleye tournament duo over the past five years. Their prowess on the Red River and Lake Winnipeg system is well known with many pundits figuring it was only a matter of time before they won an Icebreaker event. They got it done in only their sixth hardwater tournament and did so in convincing fashion winning by well over five pounds ahead of the runner-ups.
The Hiebert’s bag limit of five greenback walleye were incredibly all Manitoba Master Anglers (minimum 71cm/28in): 28.00″, 29.50″, 30.50″, 30.50″, and 31.00″ for a Total Weight of 54.82lbs! “Oh my goodness… I’m speechless,” Jaymes messaged the Weighmaster at 1:30PM after they submitted the 29.50″ to complete the five trophy fish record-breaking single day score. Other teams have scored five Masters in the past (including the 2nd place team at this same event!), but to have three 30’s in the mix is mind-blowing for a day’s fishing on hardwater.
The runners-up continued their dominance on the Icebreaker Elite Series. Trevor Hiebert and Chad Unrau who won Qualifier #1, followed-up that performance by scoring five trophy fish themselves for a total weight of 49.16lbs, just shy of the exclusive 50lb club. The field of anglers gave them their due props at the awards ceremony but Chad was having none of it, “Meh, we did okay. We didn’t win so…”. They are sitting pretty good points-wise after two events to qualify as part of the Top 20 teams to compete in the Busch Series Championship and should enter that event as the Vegas odds-on favourites to repeat.
The Tournament crew got into their share of walleye also at the Island Beach Outdoors Scoring Headquarters. We set-up shop in an Ice Castle at the mouth of the Red River on top of 8 feet of water under the ice. A pile of eater-sized fish readily bit whatever we put down. The bigger fish were very skittish though with only a few ‘overs’ committing to taking a lure.
Most teams once again employed the two-trucks method of travel. There were a couple of Sno-Bears and a handful of SxS/snowmobile teams too. The field saw a few mechanical hiccups which is par for the course fishing on Lake Winnipeg, but everyone made it off the ice safely at the end of the eight-hour day of competition.
Congratulations go out to a couple of teams who cracked their first Top 5 finishes. The team of Sheldon Meidinger and Hunter Hirvela (left in photo below) out of Bismarck, North Dakota had a solid bag of walleye to finish in 3rd Place. Their limit was anchored by a monster 30.75″ which led the HuntFishMB Big Fish of the Day for a few hours until the Hieberts scored a 31.00″ to win the $250 cash prize. The team of Jomar Sarmiento and EJ Sarmiento (right in photo below) landed in 5th place helped by a 30 inch kicker of their own. “Bro, we were celebrating so hard in the tent when we got that thirty!”, laughed Jomar at the awards ceremony.
In 4th Place was the team of Bailey Cousins and Greg Attard who have been coming in relatively under the radar the past two seasons on tour. Combine this with their 5th Place finish at Qualifier #1 and it has them starting to look forward to gunning for the $10,000 First Place prize at the Busch Series Championship. They scored a Master Angler as well which was one of sixteen caught on the day.
Huge shoutout to returning sponsor Eskimo Ice Fishing Gear for sponsoring Qualifier #2 and their continued support of the Icebreaker Elite Series. The First Place team won an incredible E40 Ice Auger Complete Package x 2 valued at $2500. 6th to 10th Place won fabulous Eskimo accessory packages and 11th to 17th place also received bonus Eskimo consolation gifts.
Congrats to the team of Tristen Harms and Martial Gauthier on their first Top 10 finish at 6th Place. Also congrats to the team of Dave Piott and Jennifer Trotman with back-to-back 8th Place finishes. Tristen and Jennifer continue to show that the ladies can hold their own on the tour and hopefully inspire more to join the B-Side Open on March 23. Registration is now open here.
The Series moves to the east side of the lake for Q3 with the Frostbite Tournament at Balsam Bay on February 23. Follow all of the action Live on our Kickerfish YouTube channel beginning at 10AM.
Final standings, Prize Payout, and Top 10 Fish can be viewed here.