Kapuskasing welcomed over 200 anglers for the 2017 Kapuskasing River Walleye Tournament – the Northern Ontario Walleye Trail’s fourth event of the circuit.  Boats lined up on each picture perfect morning to hunt down winning walleyes on the Kapuskasing River.

Day 1 was lead by the team of Gaetan and Steve Dorval with 13.25 pounds.  Hot on their heels was the team of Steve Gravel and Kevin Robineau with a weight of 13.03 pounds.  Rounding out the top 3 was the familiar duo of Denis Martin and Perry Caverson.

Day 2 is always a challenge, providing opportunity for some, and additional pressure for others.  The leader board changed up as Dave Lepage and Guy Dubosq lead the day with 11.87 pounds.  Troy Khober and Marci Khober doubled up on their day 1 weight with 11.15 pounds, good for second place.  Finishing third on Sunday was the father-son team of Mark and Noah Basaraba with 10.77 pounds.

With the weights totaled up, the Kapuskasing team of Gaetan and Steve Dorval claimed victory at the 2017 KRWT with a combined weight of 22.28 pounds, squeeking by the second place Timmins team of Jeff Vipond and Sebastien Lizotte by only 0.44 pounds.

The Top 10 of the 2017 KRWT (weight in pounds)

1. Gaetan Dorval / Steve Dorval (22.28)
2. Jeff Vipond / Sebastien Lizotte (21.84)
3. Denis Martin / Perry Caverson (20.94)
4. Steve Gravel / Kevin Robineau (20.38)
5. Dave Lepage / Guy Dubosq (19.26)
6. Terry Bernath / Jamie Robinson (18.79)
7. JC Carre / Simon Jacques (18.78)
8. Paul Godin / Lyle Biglow (18.73)
9. Denis Gendreault / Miguel Tailleur (18.16)
10. Mark Basaraba / Noah Basaraba (18.14)

For complete results, see our Results page.

For photos and commentaries, be sure to join the KRWT Facebook page!

Congratulations again to the organizers, volunteers, sponsors, Kapuskasing, and anglers. See you in 2018!

The NOWT Board of Directors, in consultation with event organizers and angler feedback, have been working to establish standardized rules which apply to all NOWT sanctioned events. The goal is to ensure compliance with Federal and Provincial laws, angler safety, natural resource conservation, and fair competition at all NOWT sanctioned events.

The NOWT rule set acts as minimum criteria for all NOWT sanctioned events – meaning organizers and participants are can expect adoption of these rules as a minimum.

It is expected that all organizers and anglers review and understand these rules clearly prior to hosting/participating in any NOWT sanctioned event.

Please see the NOWT Tournament Rules page for the published rules.  A downloadable version is also available.

In addition to these rules, the KRWT will have our event specific rules, which will be summarized at the mandatory rules meeting Friday night, and included in the angler packages.

KRWT 2016 Champions – Jason and Andrea Robichaud.

The Town of Kapuskasing hosted 107 focused teams for the 2015 Kapuskasing River Walleye Tournament.  The Sports Palace greeted all anglers with food, drink and fish-talk as registration packages were picked up and tournament rules reviewed.

Friendships were put on hold once the starting horn sounded Saturday morning.  Boaters raced through the river hoping to hit the hotsports before the others.  Day 1 put targets on the backs of the top finishers, but everyone knows – tournaments aren’t won on the first day!

With a weight of 7.41 lbs, the tournament winners barely made the top 40, and eyes were on the top team of the day – Dany and Roger Vienneau with their weight of 13.70 lbs.  Only about 3 lbs separated the leaders from the top 10.

On day 2, the team of Jason and Andrea Robichaud of Kapuskasing weighed in a whopping 16.16 lbs of golden fish giving them the day’s heaviest bag, propelling them to the top of the leaderboard for the day and the weekend (23.57 lbs)!

The weekend’s top 10:

1. Jason Robichaud/Andrea Robichaud
2. Gaetan Dorval/Steve Dorval
3. Dany Vienneau/Roger Vienneau
4. Derick Brooks/Guy Laberge
5. Paul Godin/Genevieve Godin
6. Denis Martin/Perry Carverson
7. Mathew Browne/Marc Poirier
8. Jeremy Kancir/Ann Parker
9. Mike Stanbury/Lina Guennette
10. Marc Boudreau/Jean-Pierre Lemaire

For complete results, see our Results page.

For photos and commentaries, be sure to join the KRWT Facebook page!

Congratulations again to the organizers, volunteers, sponsors, Kapuskasing, and anglers. See you in 2017!

KRWT 2015 winners Paul and Genevieve Godin.

The Kapuskasing River Walleye Tournament held August 8-9 proved to be another year of challenges and successes for participating anglers!

The weekend provided 2 great days of tournament fishing with anglers blasting down the Kapuskasing River to reach the hotspots – both the popular and the secret ones. A tour down the river showed groups of anglers in areas that have historically produced quality fish.

After the first day of fishing, only 4 anglers managed to break the 10-pound weight. Leading the pack were the teams of:
1.Marc Lebreton / Steve Hooper with 15.83 lbs
2.Jeremy Kancir / Jacques Bernard with 14.64 lbs
3.Paul Godin / Genevieve Godin with 12.73 lbs

Day 2 brought on another chance for anglers to move up the rankings into the money and maybe even the win. But consistency in netting quality fish paid off for 2 of the first day’s top 3 anglers, and for another team, Day 2’s heaviest bag of fish allowed them to jump to 3rd place!

In the end, it was the team that managed to put together 2 consistent days of fishing to take the win by just over 2 pounds – congratulations to the father-daughter team of Paul and Genevieve Godin of Moonbeam on bringing home the trophy and the first place prize of $10,000! Their winning weight was 26.09 pounds.

Rounding out the top 3 are:
◾Jeremy Kancir / Jacques Bernard (23.9 lbs)
◾Cody Lincez / Mike Wendell (23.07 lbs)

Congratulations to the KRWT committee on another successful event!

KWRT 2014 Winners: Jamie Robinson (left) and Terry Bernath (far right).

The 2014 Kapuskasing River Walleye Tournament once again turned out to be a hot event – both in action and in temperature!

Both days put anglers under the pressure of harvesting winning weights of walleye, and under the pressure of 2 days of hot August weather.

Day 1 had the teams of Godin/Godin, Huard/Genier and Michel/Yu leading first to third respectively. The weights were close, 15.43 to 10.95 in the top 10. Tenth to twentieth ranged 10.95 to 9.12 pounds!

This narrow weight range proved to be opportunistic for many anglers, and disappointing for others.

Day 1 leaders Godin/Godin held on to a 5th place, Huard/Genier earned 10th while Michel/Yu held a top 20 finish with 18th spot.

With a weight of 12.55 lbs holding in fourth spot day 1, the team of Jensen/Roy managed to weigh in with 8.72 pounds securing their third place finish.

Second place team of Roberge/Roberge had a day 1 weight putting them in 15th. But with a big weight of 14.72 on Sunday, that landed them the second place prize!

The winners were sitting in 17th place after the first day, 5.84 pounds out of first. But that didn’t deter them. The day 2 leading weight of 16.29 pounds gave Terry Bernath and Jamie Robinson their first win, and third top 3 finish this season on the NOWT.

Congratulations to all participants for an exciting and eventful tournament. Thank you to all organizers and volunteers of the KRWT for making this event another huge success!

The Kapuskasing River Walleye Tournament proved to be a close battle between 83 boats. Day 1 top weight was 16.43 lbs with 2nd and third right behind with 15.16 and 15.15 lbs! The weights from 4th to 20th was only separated by 2.39 lbs.

The story of the weekend, of course, is the team of Derek Leger and his son Paul, proving that the tournament isn’t won on the first day. With a day 1 total of “only” 9.74 lbs and a position of 28th they weighed in a whopping 19.9 lbs, besting the next best weight of 13.09 lbs and taking the win with 29.64 lbs over the two days, edging out second place by 1.39 lbs.

Congratulations to our 2013 winners and all participants! The KRWT has been another great success on the NOWT.

Mark and Noah Basaraba were able to hang onto their lead after Day 1 to win the biggest field ever in Kapuskasing and collect the $8000 cheque. Day 1 saw them weigh in 18.10 lbs anchored by some big fish and they only needed 10.58 lbs on day 2 for a total of 28.68 to seal the win. Noah is one of the younger anglers of the tournament and it is nice to see our next generation anglers come up big. The field was tight all the way down this year which made it very exciting. Coming in a close second was the team of Bernath and Robinson with 28.36 lbs and third went to the Misevic brothers with 27.83 lbs.

Things changed this year at the tournament which included a trickle start and a very quick weigh in. The trickle start was probably one of the safest ever done on the NOWT to date. The weigh in water procedure continues to be successful at being quick and the best way to get those walleye back into the river. The KRWT topped out at 76 boats this year which is the biggest field they have ever had, a testament to a great committee with some direction.