CASS LAKE, Minn. (June 14, 2008) –Ranger pro Scott Steil of Richmond, Minn., along with his partner, Nate Brunz of Madison Lake, Minn., caught five walleyes weighing 18 pounds, 1 ounce to win the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour presented by Yamaha on Cass Lake in Cass Lake, Minn. Steil had a four-day total of 20 walleyes weighing 58-02 to net him the win and $100,000.

“This is like a dream come true,” said Steil, who now has one win and four top-10 finishes in six seasons of FLW Walleye Tour competition. “It’s amazing. There are a lot of anglers out there that are good competitors that want to win as bad as I do. Now I can say that I’ve won and competed against the best.

“It was a perfect day on the water. We were done fishing at 1:30 p.m. The fish came in the right order and that’s the key in these slot tournaments.

“You don’t want your first fish to be a 21 or 22-incher,” Steil said. “That really makes you sweat the rest of the day.”

Steil fished three key spots on Cass within four miles of Stony Point Resort. He made his first run through the areas and didn’t catch one fish. He decided to make a second run over his areas and landed a 25, 18 and a 19-incher. Then he ran to his shallow water spot.

“One key area I found was shallow and I decided to stop there because the wind was blowing nice in the cabbage,” Steil said. “I am glad we did because we each caught a 27-incher. I knew from that point on that we were going to have a big bag.”

Steil said he and Brunz caught seven fish during the course of the day, but weighed the first five fish they caught. Those five fish turned out to be all they needed.

South Dakotans win the 2008 Cabela’s NTC Walleye Tournament
By Dan Carlson
June 14, 2008

Mobridge, S.D. – It a dramatic finish, two South Dakota anglers won the 2008 Cabela’s National Team Championship today on Lake Oahe. Colin Beitelspacher and Shannon Grismer, both of Sioux Falls, produced a five-fish basket weighing 13.23 lbs. today to bring their two-day tournament total to 29.58 lbs. That was only .38 ounces ahead of 2nd place finishers Brandon Beitelspacher and Andrew Moberly.

Saturday brought perfect fishing conditions to Lake Oahe at Mobridge with sunshine and light winds most of the day. David Lemke and Patrick

Seibert were in the lead when the day started, but then the team’s primary motor broke down a short distance from the Indian Creek Recreation Area starting point. That forced the front-runners to fish close to the ramp area using only a kicker motor, which also failed. Lemke and Seibert had to settle for an 11th place finish overall, but they did take home the $500 Ford Big Payload Prize for the heaviest basket of fish on day one. The $500 Ford Big Payload prize for day two went to overall 4th place finishers, Mark Butke and Ronald Racine Jr.

Colin Beitelspacher and Shannon Grismer took home the $30,000 Grand Prize and were presented with a giant check before a large crowd of fellow anglers and spectators from around the region. Because the men were also qualified Ranger Boat team members, each was presented with a certificate for a new Ranger fishing boat. At times it appeared the new champions were overcome by emotion.

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