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Bill Shimota and Cal Van Cleve Win the FLW Walleye Tour Event at Red Wing
May 22, 2010
Bill Shimota is a young man who is a tough Walleye tournament competitor. He’s soft spoken, polite, and funny. He’s a threat in any tournament he enters, because he is versatile and adept at all techniques used to catch Walleye.
After three days of competition, Bill Shimota of Lonsdale, MN and his Co Angler, Cal Van Cleve of Wilmot, SD have won the FLW Walleye Tour event on the Mississippi River in Red Wing, MN. Just when we thought the weights couldn’t possibly get any bigger than his 31+ pound basket yesterday, Bill and Cal bring in 5 fish weighing in at 35.8 pounds, giving Bill a total of 90.4 pounds and a total of 79.12 pounds for Cal. Cal took home $6,629.00 for his efforts this week and Bill took home a total of $36,001.00 that included:
$12,400.00 FLW winnings
$5,546.00 Optional Pot
$10,000.00 Ranger Cup Bonus Award
$8,000.00 Evinrude Contingency Award
Juls: Well Bill? Are you excited?
Bill: Aw, man, it feels great! I’ll tell you I was a little nervous going into this one. I even kept a couple of 16 inchers the first day, if that’s any indication (laughs). We just never really knew what we were getting into. We had a couple of secret spots that we tried to stay out of prefishing, so no one would follow us in there, and sure enough the big ones were in there like crazy come tournament time. I just had to be careful that we didn’t over fish it. And, today, if we had to, we were going to give it all day, but it only took us an hour and a half to get all our big ones. (laughs)
To view the rest of this interview click on this video link or copy/paste it to your browser address bar:
https://www.walleyecentral.com/wcvideo/index.php?action=view_video&uploadvideoID=314
You can also find more video of Bill and find out how he caught all his fish by clicking on the links found on the FLW event on the Live Leader Board at www.liveleaderboard.com.
In second place is Pro Toby Kvalevog of Brainerd, MN with a total of 74.14 pounds and Co Angler Robert Dube of Williston, ND with a total weight of 68.14 pounds. Toby led the event on day one slipped to 3rd place on day 2, and landed in second place after bringing in a limit that weighed 26.3 pounds.
Juls: How does it feel to end up second place to your teammate?
 Toby: It feels great! Billy would have had to really stumble and I would have had to have a great day to catch him. I think he had a 6 pound something lead, and knowing that he caught 40 fish yesterday, and the kind that he caught, I knew it was going to be tough.
Like I said, I was going to go for 40 pounds if I could, and our first one was about a 9 pounder, so I was on the way. (laughs) This morning, my goal was, like I told you, 24 inches or bigger, and…
Juls: You stuck to it…
Toby: Well, no….
Juls: (Laughs)
Toby: The second fish we got was a 22 ½, and that was about at 9:30, so I said to myself, “This is not happening so fast”. So, I kept it, because I have room for 8 fish. ( I nod in agreement) Then the next one was a 26, so that was better. Then a 22 ½ at noon and I kept that one too. We got room. I almost threw it back and at 2:30 I still only had 4 fish, so I was very-very happy that I didn’t pitch that fish, because I told you I was. I don’t know that it would of really mattered…
Juls: Well, if that was at 2:30 what time did you catch the last one?
Toby: That was at 2:40. (smiles)
To learn more about how Toby was fishing, and where he was fishing, just watch this video clip:
https://www.walleyecentral.com/wcvideo/index.php?action=view_video&uploadvideoID=313
Unseated from the number two spot by his teammate, Toby, Dusty Minke of Forest Lake, MN couldn’t be happier. Dusty brought in a limit of fish that weighed in at 15.4 pounds for a three day total weight of 65.13 pounds. Also in the number three position on the Co Angler side is Bill Drake of Horace, ND with 59.15 pounds.
Juls: Final day of the tournament and you’re in third place. How much fun was it fishing against your teammates today?
 Dusty: It feels great! I still wish I would of beat Bill….he really caught’em. (Laughs)
I wanted to win, but I guess maybe not as bad as him. He found a really good spot yesterday. And, I had a really good spot, but it did exactly as I predicted. My spot was dead today. It got really raked yesterday.
I gave it till 9:00, and when I got to the spot where Bill was, they were pretty much wrapping up their day.
About 20 minutes in, we caught a 6 pounder, so that helped, but then I was scrambling. I mean, we had one fish in the boat by noon. So, then, we started trolling, and ended up catching only 6 fish, but I can’t complain with what we caught. Not having my big fish spot going kind of hurt. So, to pull off 15 pounds, I think that was a good day. (Smiles)
Juls: Indeed it was…congratulations!
In fourth place is Steve Lotz of Lena, IL and Co Angler Dave Hennings of Hartley, IA with 63.2 pounds and 58.7 pounds respectively.
Juls: Well done, Steve! How did you like fishing the top ten today?
 Steve Lotz: It feels great! I went out this morning hoping I could at least maintain 4th place, and maybe move up to 3rd. I knew first and second place had some really good fish going and I would be very hard pressed to catch them, so I’m happy with 4th.
Juls: How did your day on the water go today?
Steve: Tough. It was a tough day. We got started real slow. The first two days I had a limit by 9:30…today, at 10:30, I only had two fish. And, one of them was not a very big one. (laughs) We were getting nervous. Real nervous.
Juls: What was your turning point, because you brought in a nice limit.
Steve: We decided that we’d make a move to where I knew we could go get a limit of 18 to 19 inch fish. Fortunately, it only took 20 minutes to do it. We had our 5, which took a lot of pressure off. So, then I said, “ We have to go back, and concentrate on getting two more or three more big fish. And, we actually got two more that would help us, so we were one short on the big ones.
Rounding out the top five on the Pro side is, Richard Lowe of Soldiers Grove, WI with 60.5 pounds and Co Angler Victor Wood of Rapid City, SD with 52.9 pounds.
Juls: Did you have fun today, Richard?
 Richard Lowe: I did. You know I started out in 9th and then I moved up to 8th and I figured…first event, top ten, I’m just going to go out and enjoy myself, but then I started thinking… My wife is coming and there’s all sorts of people…you’d better at least do well to justify making the top ten. And, by 11:00 I was starting to think….hmmmm, what’s going on here, Richard? Get your butt in gear…what’s going on? Think of something and figure it out. Finally, I looked at my partner, Bill Drake, who is an excellent angler, by the way, and I said, “Bill…we’re going right down to the basics. We’re going to disconnect that steering link and one rod for you and one rod for me, and we’re going to really fine tune this presentation, and that was the turning point for us.
We got in tighter, we pounded the structure better, we changed speeds, we changed directions, and that was the turning point. That started causing us to really pull in some fish. I think we caught 9 or 10 keepers. But, of course, we can only keep 8 and weigh our best 5. The big hog came at 2:20 in the afternoon. Yeah, I had fun. (Smiles)
For full results please see the Live Leader Board at www.liveleaderboard.com and click on the “Mississippi River” link associated with the FLW Walleye Tour event at Red Wing, MN. Links for photos and daily articles can be found there too.
The rest of the best on the Pro Side:
6th Place: Nick Fautsch of Maddock, ND with 57.9 pounds
7th Place: Paul Meleen of Isle, MN with 41.11 pounds
8th Place: Chad Nissen of White Bear Township with 40.12 pounds
9th Place: Brian Bjorkman of Fargo, ND with 40.2 pounds
10th Place: Byron Peterson of Blair, NE with 36.2 pounds
The rest of the best on the Co Angler side:
6th Place: Lance Baineville of Mounds View, MN with 50.4 pounds
7th Place: Bryan Bayerkohler of Eagan, MN with 42.12 pounds
8th Place: Dan Halan of Rochester, MN with 38.11 pounds
9th Place: Dan Meisner of Merrill, Wi with 38.5 pounds
10th Place: Chris Hanson of New Hope, MN with 34.15 pounds
The NPAA’s “Kid’s Fishing Clinic” put on in conjunction with the FLW Outdoors organization was a huge success with over 50 kids present. Rod, reels, and other various goodies were given away. There were several Pros on hand to help the kids learn to tie a knot and other fishing related tasks. Rick Zachowski MC’d the Kid’s event and other Pros, like Eric Olson, gave mini seminars from inside the National Guard wrapped boat, where the kids learned about electronics and the difference between jigs and cranks, etc.
Other Pros that were on hand were Jason Przekurat and Mark Courts.
The next FLW Walleye Tour event will be at Lake Oahe June 24th- 26th, 2010. For more information about fishing or attending an FLW event, please visit their website at www.flwoutdoors.com.
The next event that Walleye Central will be at is the NTC/MWC June 5th and 6th, 2010 in Oshkosh, WI on Lake Winnebago.
Hope to see you all there!
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