This morning, the Kentucky Lake Bassmaster Elite Series seemed to be the battle of two – Kevin Wirth vs. Kevin VanDam. Morizo Shimizu trailed Wirth by more than 5 pounds and seemed pretty much out of it.
But Shimizu said he was going fishing for a 20-pound sack.
No 20-pound sack had been weighed yet, so his declaration was brushed off by most. But he stuck to his word. He bailed on his shallow stuff that helped him the first 2 days and went deep all day.
Through brutal morning winds, then an intense afternoon storm, he walloped a tournament-best 20-06 bag. Neither Wirth nor VanDam weighed over 16 pounds and Shimizu made up the 5-pound difference and then some. He surpassed both VanDam and Wirth and won by a 1-11 margin.
Wirth's 13-09 limit today moved him back one spot and he finished 2nd with 64-14 total.
With 15-05 today, VanDam slipped one spot to finish 3rd with 63-08.
Skeet Reese caught 16-08 today – the exact same weight he caught yesterday – and moved up one spot to finish 4th with 61-11.
John Crews also moved up. He caught 16-15 today and finished 5th with 61-01 (up from 7th yesterday).
Here's how the rest of the Top 12 finished:
6. Jeff Kriet: 20, 60-08
7. Lee Bailey: 20, 60-07
8. Edwin Evers: 20, 56-07
9. Mike Wurm: 20, 55-15
10. Tommy Biffle: 18, 52-11
11. Kelly Jordon: 19, 52-00
12. Jimmy Mize: 17, 46-09
Shimizu doesn't set goals for himself within the sport, but he does have a goal – to have bass fishing reach the status of the other major sports.
Shimizu Pumped
Shimizu, a native of Osaka, Japan, has been fishing in the U.S. for 4 years, but this was his first U.S. win at this level.
He said yesterday that Kentucky Lake could produce a 20-pound bag, and he would go for the win. In one of the most memorable day 4s this year, he did what seemed impossible.
He caught that 20-pound bag and moved past two of the Top 10 anglers in the world.
That was all after he ended day 1 back in 49th place.
"I can't believe it yet," he said through a translator. "I can't believe I won the tournament.
"I'm surprised, yes, (but) Kentucky Lake had the potential for it (a 20-pound bag)."
Anglers who come from Japan to fish the U.S. face a number of obstacles – new water, no family, a strange country. BassFan asked Shimizu if this win makes that all worth it.
"Yes, it makes it worth it," he said. "This was my longtime dream."
He also noted he'll stay and continue to fish in the U.S.
With one milestone out of the way – a tour/series level win – he said he doesn't have a primary career goal right now in the traditional sense. He does, however, have a goal for the sport as a whole.
"It's not a goal, but I'm dreaming about winning the (Bassmaster) Classic and Angler of the Year (AOY) one day," he said. "I also want bass fishing to be (as) recognized as the other sports. Baseball, football, basketball – I want bass fishing to be recognized like that."
He fished shallow on day 1, then shallow and deep on day 2. For day 3, he primarily fished deep, and he fished deep exclusively today. He threw a jig and Texas-rigged worm for his deep-water bites.
Details of his winning pattern, and pattern information for the other top finishers, will be posted soon.
2nd: Wirth Disappointed
Wirth carried a 3-pound lead into today. He had the opportunity to clinch his first tour/series-level win, and his first BASS win in 11 years.
He came up 1-11 short.
"I'm happy, but sad too," he said. "There were no execution problems today – I had eight keeping bites and caught them.
"The wind was a big factor, and the storms and stuff coming through.
"I'm real disappointed," he added. "If you're ever going to win one, you figure your best opportunity is when you have a 3-pound lead going into the last day. You should be able to go out, do your job and win the tournament.
"Unfortunately, I didn't. Morizo had an astronomical day. There were only two people who could have beat me with me having 13 pounds. One guy caught them. That seems to be the story of my life. This happens to me. I don't know why it does, but it does."
He did take a some positives away from the event. He gained significant points on Elite Series AOY race points leader Mike Iaconelli.
Kevin Wirth's disappointed – he let this one slip away.
"AOY is in deep sight," Wirth said. "There's four tournaments left. I feel real comfortable on the next two or three lakes we're going to. Table Rock (in September) kind of concerns me, but Champlain, Oneida, the Potomac – I feel comfortable fishing those places."
3rd: VanDam Disappointed Too
VanDam led days 1 and 2, but it was not to be. He too struggled with wind.
"I'm disappointed – I definitely wanted to win," he said. "I did everything I could today, it was just so windy, it made it really hard to be able to move around.
"I wasn't even able to fish 90% of the water I had."
He caught "quite a few fish" today, so numbers weren't a problem. Big bites were, and he couldn't fish his big-bite areas effectively.
"I couldn't hold on the places that I needed to fish. I tried, and had waves coming over the bow. I couldn't even hold the boat there.
"The presentations were so precise on a lot of those spots out there, and you can't do that when it's windy."
Kevin VanDam got blown off his best stuff this morning, so he went shallow for a limit.
He tried some shallower ledges today with a lipless crank – the new Redeye Rattler from Strike King. That's because he only had a few fish after 2 hours of fishing deep. He caught a shallow limit on the Rattler and culled a few times.
"Then later this afternoon a big storm came in," he added. "It blew real hard, then calmed a little, so I went back out deep. I caught my two biggest fish then, but it was too late – I ran out of time."
5th: Crews Proved It
Crews will take a finish like this all day long, and he's happy he caught deep fish.
"I feel pretty good about it," he said. "I was really looking forward to this tournament, mainly because I kind of wanted to prove I could catch fish deep as well as anybody."
His undoing was a 12 1/2-pound day 1. Boat traffic was the problem that day, he noted.
"I didn't get any big bites on day 1. It was crazy. I had 10 or 12 really good places I wanted to fish, but there was a boat on every one of them. So I had to go fish secondary stuff further down. People were really in my way."
He thinks the other boats struck out on those spots, because they weren't there on day 2 – the day he weighed 17 pounds.
"Every day since then, I didn't have a problem getting on my best areas," he said.
> He's leaving early tomorrow morning to make the long drive to Lake Champlain (N.Y./Vt.) for this week's Champlain FLW Tour.
6th: Kriet Will Take It
This was Jeff Kriet's first Top 12 cut of the year, which he's happy about. But he feels he could have done better. He was 2nd after day 1, but continued to move backward after that.
"Anytime you can make the Top 12, you've had a good tournament," he said. "But I really feel like I'd found the fish to win the tournament. And overall, I fished pretty well – except the second day, when I really felt like I should have had a 15- or 16-pound bag at least.
"I'll take it. That's a pretty tough crew to fish against."
Yesterday, a fish died in his livewell. BASS tournament director Trip Weldon clarified to anglers this season that the culling of dead fish in not allowed.
"Yesterday I had one die that was about 2 1/2 pounds, and I couldn't get rid of it," he said. "I had to throw back a bunch of 3-pounders.
"I was catching mine really deep – 25 to 30 feet at the base of the drops – and when you catch them that deep, half the time they're floating. And this lake is so big and rough, and we're making long runs. I froze like 10 water bottles every morning and put them in (the livewell) all day long."
8th: Evers Also Disappointed
Edwin Evers started slow, but continued to climb. He left a lot of fish in the lake on day 1, and never overcame it.
"I'm a little disappointed," he said. "I should have done a little better. I didn't land all the bites I needed to land.
"It wasn't like I lost one or two. I lost multiple fish over the course of the tournament that would have made a big, big difference."
He fished deep where he threw a crank, Carolina-rig and football-head jig. He lost most of his fish on the crank.
"I think it's just bad luck," he noted. "I crankbait quite a bit – I'm pretty used to doing it – and I usually catch them."
Notable
> Day 4 stats – 12 anglers, 9 limits, 1 four, 1 three, 1 two.
> Across the 4 days, Shimizu went from 49th to 10th to 3rd to 1st.
> Crews compared today's on-the-water shower to his motel's. "It rained so hard today that the water pressure from the rain was harder than the shower at the place I'm staying," he said. "And that wasn't for a couple seconds, but for a few minutes. That's not a knock on where I'm staying. That's how hard it rained for a little while."
> Four two-tour anglers made the Top 12 cut: Crews, Mike Wurm, Tommy Biffle and Kelly Jordon. They all face a long drive to Lake Champlain, where most of the FLW Tour field has already been practicing.
> The next Elite Series event is at Lake Oneida, N.Y., followed by the Champlain Elite Series the following week. Originally, two-tour anglers would have been in violation of BASS rules if they fished the upcoming Champlain FLW Tour, since it's within the Elite Series 30-day off-limits period. But BASS changed the off-limits period for its Champlain Elite Series only. It now starts Sunday after the Champlain FLW Tour concludes.
Day 4 (Final) Standings
1. Morizo Shimizu -- Murrieta, Calif. -- 20, 66-09 -- 305 -- $103,000
Day 1: 5, 11-07 -- Day 2: 5, 19-03 -- Day 3: 5, 15-09 -- Day 4: 5, 20-06
2. Kevin Wirth -- Crestwood, Ky. -- 20, 64-14 -- 300 -- $30,000
Day 1: 5, 16-02 -- Day 2: 5, 18-04 -- Day 3: 5, 16-15 -- Day 4: 5, 13-09
3. Kevin VanDam -- Kalamazoo, Mich. -- 20, 63-08 -- 300 -- $26,000
Day 1: 5, 18-09 -- Day 2: 5, 16-11 -- Day 3: 5, 12-15 -- Day 4: 5, 15-05
4. Skeet Reese -- Auburn, Calif. -- 20, 61-11 -- 285 -- $18,000
Day 1: 5, 12-08 -- Day 2: 5, 16-03 -- Day 3: 5, 16-08 -- Day 4: 5, 16-08
5. John Crews -- Salem, Va. -- 20, 61-01 -- 280 -- $17,000
Day 1: 5, 12-07 -- Day 2: 5, 16-15 -- Day 3: 5, 14-12 -- Day 4: 5, 16-15
6. Jeff Kriet -- Ardmore, Okla. -- 20, 60-08 -- 276 -- $15,500
Day 1: 5, 18-00 -- Day 2: 5, 12-11 -- Day 3: 5, 14-07 -- Day 4: 5, 15-06
7. Lee Bailey -- Boaz, Ala. -- 20, 60-07 -- 272 -- $15,000
Day 1: 5, 12-01 -- Day 2: 5, 18-11 -- Day 3: 5, 12-11 -- Day 4: 5, 17-00
8. Edwin Evers -- Talala, Okla. -- 20, 56-07 -- 268 -- $15,500
Day 1: 5, 14-00 -- Day 2: 5, 12-10 -- Day 3: 5, 17-04 -- Day 4: 5, 12-09
9. Mike Wurm -- Hot Springs, Ark. -- 20, 55-15 -- 264 -- $14,000
Day 1: 5, 17-09 -- Day 2: 5, 13-02 -- Day 3: 5, 12-05 -- Day 4: 5, 12-15
10. Tommy Biffle -- Wagoner, Okla. -- 18, 52-11 -- 260 -- $13,500
Day 1: 5, 17-15 -- Day 2: 5, 13-05 -- Day 3: 5, 14-00 -- Day 4: 3, 7-07
11. Kelly Jordon -- Mineola, Texas -- 19, 52-00 -- 257 -- $12,500
Day 1: 5, 17-12 -- Day 2: 5, 12-10 -- Day 3: 5, 12-11 -- Day 4: 4, 8-15
12. Jimmy Mize -- Ben Lomond, Ark. -- 17, 46-09 -- 254 -- $12,300
Day 1: 5, 13-05 -- Day 2: 5, 12-09 -- Day 3: 5, 17-01 -- Day 4: 2, 3-10
Big Bass
> Day 4 -- Morizo Shimizu -- Murrieta, Calif. -- 5-07 -- $1,000
> Day 3 -- John Murray -- Phoenix, Ariz. -- 5-04 -- $1,000
> Day 2 -- Russell Lane -- Prattville, Ala. -- 5-15 -- $1,000
> Day 1 -- Brent Chapman -- Lake Quivira, Kan. -- 6-09 -- $1,000
