‘Humbling’: Hicks, Lockyer take home 2019 Vanity Cup

The pair also caught the biggest walleye on day one, weighing in at 14.14 pounds. That earned them another $1,375, along with their daily prizes as well. Lockyer said their big catch on day one was a big help.

“A little bit more pressure today,” Lockyer told northeastNOW. “Yesterday we had them early, a little bit less pressure, and we had to work this afternoon to put two in the boat and we ended up getting, three, four over so we were lucky.”

For Lockyer, while it was his first year at the Vanity Cup, he said he does have plenty of experience on that body of water and in other fishing tournaments.

“It’s special to place anytime,” he said.

“To be honest, this one is, one word, maybe humbling. This is humbling; everyone here can fish a good stick as we know.” _{-Tony Lockyer}

As for what the pair plans to do with their shares of the prize money they got, Hicks said it’s something he’ll have to think about.

“I have no idea,” Hicks said. “You don’t plan on winning this thing and to win it with Tony, it’s an honour, it’s something.”

Filling out the top three overall finishers were David and David Junior Shmyr of Rycroft, Alta. in second with 10 fish totalling 55.64 pounds, and Tom and Larry Johnston of Regina claiming third with a two day total of 10 fishing weighing 53.92 pounds. The second and third place finishers both receive boats as prizes.

Second place winners David and David Jr. Shmyr (far left) with winners Lyndon Hicks and Tony Lockyer (middle), and third place finishers Tom and Larry Johnston (far right). (Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

Locally, the top team from the area was a husband and wife duo from Choiceland. Dean and Shelley Paslawski won the Vanity Cup back in 2007 and have been fishing in the tournament together for at least 12 years. They were the top mixed team at the tournament this year, and finished eighth overall. They also finished sixth on day one. Overall, they will take home about $9,500 in prize money. Dean said they did a couple things different to finish so high.

“We used smaller leaches, active leaches that were smaller,” he said. “And most people think they should come in here and use the biggest leach they can find, and it was just a change, usually they like bigger leaches but I think it was different this year.”

Both Shelley and Dean have been fishing in the tournament since about 1996, and when they first became partners in the Vanity Cup, Shelley said they clashed a bit, and it took some time to adjust.

“Sometimes I wanted to push him off the boat,” she joked. “But we’ve come so far, I don’t have that feeling anymore.”

Both called it “awesome” to be able to win together. Shelley said when they go into these tournaments; they always want to be in the money. However, when they were near the top after day one, she said they were disappointed for a bit with an eighth place finish, but Dean mentioned that they still had fun anyway.

Dean (far left), and Shelley (middle right) Paslawski won the top mixed team at the 2019 Vanity Cup and finished eighth overall. (Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

Over $300,000 in prizes and prize money were handed out on Sunday at the awards ceremony at the Evergreen Centre. The top team on day two was the team of Cory Bjornson of Regina, and Michael Nelson of Prud Homme who had 32.49 pounds of Sunday. They win a $5,000 prize for that result. Meanwhile, Kevin and Kolby Matiachuk of Saskatoon and Dalmeny caught the biggest walleye on Sunday, weighing 12.47 pounds.

Proceeds from the 2019 Vanity Cup go to support Nipawin Minor Hockey.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6

by Mat Barrett

‘Humbling’: Hicks, Lockyer take home 2019 Vanity Cup

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