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Eric Labaupa

@eric_onthe_red

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Owner/Editor of Kickerfish (online sport fishing resource - Central Canada and beyond).

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All I wanted to do was chuck and stroll a jerkbait at the @fishfrostbite Falcon Lake Bass Tournament. Definitely not a recipe for a winning bag, but I got my five and lost five more so not too bad of a day. Ended up in 11th place to cap off the Central Canada Kayak Trail season. Finished in 8th place in the Angler of the Year rankings, my lowest finish yet. Gonna have to turn it up a notch next year. Was fun to hand out all kinds of prizes to our Stop #4 and Season Awards winners. Huge shoutout to @stillwateradv for all of their support of the @kickerfish_ca CCKT.

#kayakangling #kayakangler #bassfishing taken in Faloma Beach Marina by @eric_onthe_red

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a month ago

Back at it again this morning lol This time we were able to land one of the giant largemouth bass we’ve been seeing all week!! 🤩💪🏽 Easy 5lber (20” or so).

I hooked an even bigger one the other day, but didn’t have a way to get it up onto the bridge until it shook the hair jig off. This time, I was actually reeling in yet another small sunfish when it darted out of the dark and engulfed the entire thing 😳 Incredibly, the small crappie jig hooked its lip as the little one got away. I nervously fought it to shore then handed the rod to Nash as I ran through the dense bush to get under the bridge and grab it. He shared in the catch so he said he should also get a photo holding it 😆

Uncle Sal got a taste of Nash’s trash-talking expertise LOL Every fish the kid got before his Ninong got his first, the chirping got more obnoxious 🤣 I gave him a taste of his own medicine the night before when we went out for a midnight fish. I got a bullhead and a goby to his skunk.
@kickerfish_ca @kalins_fishing #bassfishing #gofishwithnash taken in Chicago, Illinois by @eric_onthe_red

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2 months ago

Day 2 of our Chicago adventure. Got some more fishing in this morning. More big bluegill, different kinds of other sunfish, and some bonus goby and largemouth bass. Even hooked what would have easily been my new personal best largie, but we had no way to land it from atop the bridge 😆 taken in Woodridge, Illinois by @eric_onthe_red

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2 months ago

Got up bright and early to catch the morning bluegill bite. Got ten or so but didn’t really have the right stuff. Went for a supply run to the local Bass Pro, got lunch at a killer mexican restaurant, then absolutely slaughtered them in the afternoon catching over 40 of them 💪🏽 Nash just loves catching any kind of panfish.

Dropped the ladies off at the BTS concert powering through an hour and a half of bumper to bumper traffic 👎🏽 Now we’re killing time having too much fun chasing drum in one of the many beautiful marina parks here in downtown Chicago. taken in Chicago, Illinois by @eric_onthe_red

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2 months ago

@j6_surla and I reunited as a team for the @faamfishing204 Catfish Showdown powered by @kickerfish_ca after our boys chose to go to a birthday party instead.

We had high hopes to challenge for the win after some insane practice sessions, but when our first spot yielded only a dozen ordinary ones, we knew it might be a grind for us to get a sumo bag of ten. Moving upriver to our secondary area turned out to have better sized cats. In the end we scored 344.25 total inches which was good for 9th place in a stacked field of channel cat experts. Congrats to the Top 5 teams were able to crack 350”-355”.

Huge thanks to @divine.labaupa and @jtsusername for an outstanding job scoring the tournament👌🏽and Dale Hutchings for helping run the event today.

Super appreciate all of our sponsors 🙏🏽 which helped us to pay out $7200 in cash prizes (entry fee pool was 20x$300 =$6000)! plus another $1300 worth of prizes. Sure Step c/o Dave Simpson | Carman & District Game & Fish c/o Jason Cross | Hecla Island General Store c/o Kevin Christiansen | @smokenfish | @thefishinholewinnipeg | DC Welding c/o Dave Piott for buying pizza for everyone at the awards.
#catfish #channelcatfish taken in Red River, Selkirk Mb by @eric_onthe_red

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2 months ago

It was only a matter of time 😭 In all these years of chucking out sharp hooks, I had never ever gotten snagged by one until the other day.

Practice for the Island Lake Kayak Tournament was winding down when yet another 15” bass smashed the popper. I stupidly lifted the fish out of the water by grabbing the line. The fish went nutz so I let go of the line but it didn’t drop back into the water. I stared in horror as my hand, the lure, and the flopping bass were all one jumbled mess 😳🩸Anyone who knows me knows that I was very close to passing out at this point. It took about eight ‘ow’s until I was able to secure the angry bass between my knees. The pliers helped to free him but proved useless for cutting the hook though. With one hand I carefully got the treble off the O-ring to separate the lure. Normally I can barely do this with two hands and tools, but they say you get superpowers in life and death situations.

Funnily enough I was on speaker phone with @sportysantos blatantly lying to him about there being no fish in this lake when this all went down 🤣 I washed the blood off and contemplated how life was going to be with a permanent piercing on my hand. I sent a photo to our group chat and seconds later @2riversboatworks calls “I’ll be right there with some snips and line to extract it”. I could literally hear him grinning and licking his chops.

Santos glided up soon after “Please tell me you have cutters on you bro!??” I wisely made sure not to mention that Mike was on his way. I loudly praised the Lord and went to work gingerly snipping the hook. With the barb end gone, I attempted to pull the remaining out but it surprisingly hurt like a 🤬 and more blood started to drip out. You know in movies where they count to three and rip the arrow out of a guy? Ya there was no way I was gonna do that. I fiddled with it for the next five minutes slowly and painfully making progress mm by mm until it was finally free.

The disappointment on Mike’s face when we rolled up to the dock caused me to profusely thank Santos again for having tools in his kit 🙏🏽 Lessons learned: always have cutters in your tackle box, respect the hooks, and karma is a bitch 😆🤦🏽‍♂️ by @eric_onthe_red

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2 months ago

Kultivation Festival Fils to watch list 2026.
The 5th Annual Kultivation Festival, Sept 19-26, 2026 in Winnipeg and surrounding areas.

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT:
Eric Labaupa
@eric_onthe_red @kickerfish_ca

Eric Labaupa is the owner of Kickerfish Media, a tremendously influential entity in the Central
Canadian sportfishing industry. His company organizes over twenty different competitive fishing
events throughout the year on ice, boat, shore, and kayak. Eric hosts a popular weekly live podcast “The Casting Deck” that airs on the Kickerfish YouTube channel. Kickerfish also created The Winnipeg Ice Fishing Show, the largest ice fishing consumer tradeshow in the country held every November.
An incredibly accomplished angler, Eric is widely regarded as one of the top advocates and promoters of the sport in the province. From founding the Filipino-Canadian Anglers Association
of MB, to his dedicated work as a Safety Ambassador for Lifesaving Society Manitoba, to his work as a knowledgeable Sales Rep for numerous outdoor industry brands, his passion for fishing is truly unmatched.
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Eric is a happily married father of three. In between a plethora of
angling related projects, he is also active in several Filipino basketball leagues, a professional
emcee for hire, and a culinary enthusiast.

#filipino #wpg #mb #winnipeg #filipinoexcellance #filipina #filipinocanadian taken in Winnipeg, Manitoba by @eric_onthe_red

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2 months ago

Today was Nash’s turn to compete entering the annual Faloma Beach Marina Kids Derby 🎣

All of his dock fishing practice and expertise was put to the test in a record field of over 60 kids! Nash ended up getting 2nd Place in the ‘Most Fish Caught’ category with 8 perch 💪🏽 The winner was one of CDP Nation’s youngest members Hunter who caught an incredible 33 fish 😳

The ‘Big Fish’ award was an 18” northern pike caught by one of the younger anglers in the derby 💙 Huge thanks to Ian Young and the entire team of volunteers for a great time at the marina.
#gofishwithnash #fishing by @eric_onthe_red

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2 months ago

Got 6th place today at the @kickerfish_ca Central Canada Kayak Trail event on Island Lake 💪🏽

Sharing some of the bass photos from Friday’s unreal practice session. Totally different bite today unfortunately in the blustery conditions. Still managed to successfully land half of my big bites for four fat smallmouth bass. Filled my five fish limit with a late day largemouth near the check-in.

Congrats to Vernon Maslow on the win🏅 Awesome job to all of the CCKT anglers who powered through the showers and the tight launch. Huge thanks to Uncle Mark for hosting the tournament at his house.

Tour season-ender is on September 5 - @fishfrostbite Bass tournament at Falcon Lake. Open to anyone - register online today at kickerfish.ca
#bassfishing #bass by @eric_onthe_red

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2 months ago

Nash’s 1st ever trip to Crow Duck Lake Camp!

We joined the Fish Futures crew for a day of fun on Crow Duck. The place is famous for endless walleye, but we set out this morning for some bass redemption as we know there are monsters in there too. Every corner of the lake we hit had active smallies with our topwater lures especially getting smashed regularly!

We did do some walleye drifts to fill our contribution to the amazing fish fry. After Nash hit double digits he was fine with us going back to bass again 😆 At the end of the day true to form, he fished off the docks hooking into some big perch and catching frogs. Shoutout to the awesome team running the camp 👌🏽 by @eric_onthe_red

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2 months ago

🚨 REGISTRATION IS OPEN for the 19th annual Red River Greenback Classic!

Go to kickerfish.ca to claim your spot today. $60/angler entry fee. Any number of anglers (safely) in the boat. Each angler’s longest walleye competition- Minimum 55cm to score. Friday October 2nd.

#walleye @mustangsurvival @thecastingdeckpodcast @2riversboatworks @cityofselkirk #greenbackwalleye taken in Selkirk, Manitoba by @eric_onthe_red

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2 months ago

Down year for our Bonbers looks like 👎🏽 Fun times as always though at the stadium with the fam. by @eric_onthe_red

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3 months ago