Big Fish Carry Lavrenz, Kalis to the Minnesota State Championship of Walleye
Fishing Title
By Steve Weisman
GNWC Publicity Director
After grabbing the first day lead at the Minnesota State Championship of
Walleye Fishing at Lake Bemidji, the team of Dan Lavrenz from St. Michael,
MN and Troy Kalis from Brainerd, MN withstood the challenge of two hard
charging teams to take the 2005 title! For their efforts, Lavrens and Kalis
pocketed $4000 in cash, plus the Lowrance “YOU WIN!” award of two Lowrance
LMS-332C color sonar/GPS units valued at $1400, making the total first place
purse worth $5400.
One of those hard charging teams was the team of Chad Benson and Joe
Edlund from Bemidji, MN. They ended up with a two-day total weight of 18.34
pounds and cashed the second place check of $1500.
Third place and a check for $900 went to the 2005 Yamaha Outboards Team
of the Year, Michael Marushin and Jeffrey Clem from Chanhassen, MN. They had
a two-day weight of 17.24 pounds for 11 fish.
The Cabela’s Big Fish Award of a $200 shopping spree and the optional
Big Fish Pot of $360 went to Lavrens and Kalis for the 7.01-pound walleye
that they caught on Saturday.
The Minnesota State Championship of Walleye Fishing, which is the fifth
of seven such tournaments on the Grand National Walleye Cup (GNWC) circuit,
was definitely a tournament filled with final day drama.
“What a finish,” said GNWC Executive Director Bernie Barringer. “The
7.01 pounder that the winners caught on Saturday made the difference. Chad
and Joe were over four pounds back going into today’s action, and when it
was over less than a pound separated the two teams.”
Lavrens and Kalis took the Day I lead by catching their big fish, along
with a six pounder, on a shallow rock pile. They cast jig and minnow and jig
and four-inch white Berkley Power Grubs. Kalis noted that they targeted this
area because of the wind. “The wind was blowing the bait up there, and
during pre-fishing we took smaller keeper fish. So, that is what we expected
when we started out on Saturday.” Instead, bigger fish had replaced the
smaller walleyes! So, even though they caught only four fish on Saturday,
they were still able to build over a four pound lead heading into Sunday.
Kalis added, “Since it’s shallow, we figured it would be an early bite.
On Sunday, we didn’t catch anything early – until Dan caught a 45-inch
muskie about 8 a.m. Then we picked up two walleyes.” They later caught two
more fish in deeper water.
Benson and Edlund proved to be the most consistent of the top teams by
catching six-fish limits each day. On Saturday, they worked Lindy rigs,
which they tipped with either a leech or nightcrawler, in 20-25 feet of
water off a shoreline point on the west side. Then, with the wind down on
Sunday, they changed their strategy to pulling #7 glass Shad Raps with lead
core line in 30 feet of water.
According to Marushin, he and Clem had five good spots going into the
tournament. “Then the storm came in on Friday, and that changed everything,”
said Marushin. “They either weren’t there, or they wouldn’t bite.”
So, they worked a tight corner off of Grassy Reef in 13-30 feet of
water, using a seven-foot snell and a red hook tipped with a leech. Marushin
added, “We really want to thank Ron and Pam at Tabers Bait for all the good
information they gave us.”
Several other special awards were presented at Sunday’s weigh-in.
The Skeeter Boats award of a $1000 went to Benson and Edlund for being
the highest placing Skeeter team. “I run a 2050 with a Yamaha 250 HPDI. It’s
an awesome machine. Skeeter Boats has really been good to us,” said Benson.
The “Yo So Close” award of a Yo Net folding net valued at $80 went to
the teams that placed just out of the money. They include Jamie Lindseth
from Eveleth, MN and Ken Lindseth from Bemidji, MN in 9th place; Jerry Firth
from Bloomington, MN and Dan Duvall from Zimmerman, MN in 10th place; and
Duane Ryks and Sandy Ryks from Spicer, MN in 11th place.
The Towtector Comeback Award of a Towtector boat protector valued at
over $269 went to the team advancing the most places from the first day to
the second day. This award went to the team of Corey Bohn from Kensington,
MN and Jason Overby from Marshall, MN, who advanced from 16th place on
Saturday to 12th place on Sunday.
The Top Family Angler Award presented by the FoodSource Lure Company of
$200 in FoodSource Lures went to the team of Robert and Lisa Schults from
St. Peter, MN, who tied for sixth place with 14.73 pounds.
Those interested in checking out the standings, reading the releases
about any of the seven regions or simply learning more about the circuit can
access the GNWC website at http://www.walleyecup.com.
Major national sponsors for the GNWC include Skeeter Boats, Yamaha
Outboards, Lowrance Electronics, YoNet Folding Nets by AMFYOYO, Aqua-VU,
Aqua Innovations, Cabela’s and UpNorthOutdoors.com. National championship
sponsors are Towtector Shield and the FoodSource Lure Corporation