Shimota Wins on Mighty Mississippi

5/22/2010 9:56:15 AM

Bill Shimota wins walleye tourney rigging live bait and casting crankbaits

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Van Cleve Hangs on for Co-Angler Title

Pro Bill Shimota of Lonsdale, Minn., and co-angler Cal Van Cleve of Wilmot, S.D., caught five fish weighing 35 pounds, 8 ounces to win the FLW Walleye Tour Western Division tournament on Mississippi River, where the anglers were fishing pool no. 3. Shimota had a three-day catch of 15 walleyes weighing 90-4. He won by more than 15-pounds over his closest competitor. Shimota took home $36,001 for his efforts.

“I got my live bait rigs in the water right away this morning at my ‘A’ spot and picked up my casting rod,” said Shimota, who earned his first Tour victory. “My first cast I lost a big fish, but fired back in there and caught a 27-incher and a 28-incher about 10 minutes later. We had four big fish before 8 o’clock.

“After we got our limit, we ended up going trolling all day and relaxing and we upgraded our lone 20-incher to a 24-incher. We were getting even more relaxed and upgraded the 24-incher to a 27-incher.

“We were rigging with live bait with big creek chubs and at the same time casting crankbaits. The last couple of days I actually stumbled into some fish,” said Shimota. “Yesterday I was out wasting time because I already had a big bag and was prefishing for today and found some fish trolling on Fireline with #5 Shad Raps. Actually we needed it again today. Well actually we may not have needed it, but we ended up getting a couple of big bites from it also.”

Shimota said the win was what he has been looking for. “It is pretty cool and something you dream of. I have gotten some smaller wins, but this is the one I wanted, so done deal.”

Rounding out the top-10 pros were:

      2nd:    Toby Kvalevog, Brainerd, Minn., 15 fish, 74-14, $5,792
      3rd:     Dusty Minke, Forest Lake, Minn, 15 fish, 65-13, $4,131
      4th:     Steve Lotz, Lena, Ill., 15 fish, 63-2, $5,991
      5th:     Richard Lowe, Soldiers Grove, Wis., 15 fish, 60-5, $1,993
      6th:     Nick Fautsch, Maddock, N.D., 15 fish, 57-9, $1,744
      7th:     Paul Meleen, Isle, Minn., 13 fish, 41-11, $3,974
      8th:     Chad Nissen, White Bear Township, Minn., 14 fish, 40-12, $2,061
      9th:     Brian Bjorkman, Fargo, N.D., 13 fish, 40-2, $3,149
      10th:   Byron Peterson, Blair, Neb., 13 fish, 36-2, $747

A complete list of results can be found at FLWOutdoors.com

Van Cleve, with the victory in the Co-angler Division, took home $6,629. His three day weight totaled 79 pounds, 12 ounces. He fished with Terence Filkins, Kvalevog and Shimota over the course of the tournament.

“I had a great deal of confidence in Bill as he has been very consistent the previous two days,” said Van Cleve, who had never been in first place before and said he felt like he had already won. “The final conclusion was not that important to me, but it is a once in a lifetime experience for me. This is the sort of thing that happens to other people.”

Rounding out the top-10 co-anglers were:

      2nd:    Robert Dube, Williston, N.D., 14 fish, 68-14, $1,159
      3rd:     William Drake, Horace, N.D., 15 fish, 59-15, $1,739
      4th:     Dave Hennings, Hartley, Iowa, 15 fish, 58-7, $754
      5th:     Victor Wood, Rapid City, S.D., 15 fish, 52-9, $1,524
      6th:     Lance Bainville, Mounds View, Minn., 12 fish, 50-4, $946
               7th:           Bryan Bayerkohler, Eagan, Minn., 12 fish, 42-12, $580
      8th:     National Guard co-angler Daniel Halan, Rochester, Minn., 13 fish, 38-11, $522
      9th:     Daniel Meisner, Merrill, Wis., 13 fish, 38-5, $464
      10th:   Christopher Hanson, New Hope, Minn., 10 fish, 34-15, $406