Fishing Team Goes Pink For Breast Cancer Awareness on Lake Minnetonka

It’s hard to miss Kevin Kerkvliet and Dean Kaminski.

With matching pink shirts and the phrase “Save the TaTas” blazed along the sides of their high-end fishing boats, the two professional walleye anglers draw plenty of attention whenever they are on the water.

“Nobody in the professional walleye circuit—or from the FLW bass tour, for that matter—has done something like this with breast cancer or any other nonprofit-type organization,” Kerkvliet said. “My wife’s mother died of breast cancer, so it gave us extra incentive to get the sponsorship worked out.”

Kerkvliet and Kaminski are part of the National Guard FLW Walleye Tour and travel around the country to fish in tournaments. They appeared on the Versus channel on July 31 and are on television four times each year as part of National Guard FLW Walleye Tour. This past Sunday, they spent most of the day on Lake Minnetonka, taking a half-dozen youngsters from Wayzata fishing for a few hours as part of an ongoing mission to get kids on the water.

“Everything right now is a video game,” Kaminski added. “They fish on a video game.”

“One of the things we’re trying to do is get the kids outside,” Kerkvliet said.

After dropping the kids off, the pro anglers cruised over to Excelsior to meet with local women planning a “Save the Tatas” breast cancer fundraiser in Excelsior this October. Each Thursday, Excelsior hosts Minnesota’s largest “Girl’s Night Out,” and on Oct. 6, Water Street will be lit pink in honor of the women and families affected by breast cancer.

Details are still being hammered out, but Kerkvliet and Kaminski, along with their distinctive boats, are hoping to pitch in to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research.

Patch will have additional details on the Oct. 6 Girl’s Night Out event in the coming weeks.