Carstensen Wins FLW Leech Lake

Kevin Carstensen was a little nervous coming to the scale today. He was confident he had the raw weight to win the FLW Leech Lake tournament at Walker, MN, but mechanical issues with his boat had caused the fish to die. With the dead weight penalty, he wasn’t sure he would be able to pull it off. In the end, he was able to edge past Bill Shimota by four pounds to take the win with a three day total of 41lbs 11oz.

Carstensen spent the last three days fishing by the dam in the cane beds, which was about a 25 minute run from the launch. The day started out really slow because of the clear, flat water. However once some boats came through and stirred it up, he started catching fish. It wasn’t long before he stuck one just over 26 inches and another that was 26.5 inches. At 10am they left that spot to try to replace some of their unders with fish from another area.

He was rigging with a 6.5 foot snell with a plain hook and 3/8 ounce weight. “You had to use a full crawler, not a half, because they wouldn’t touch a half. I would just drag it on bottom and when I would feel a small tap, like a small perch, I would just free spool it, let them eat it, and then just set the hook. Even the big ones would just tap on it like perch. They were all just barely hooked on the lip,” he said. Carstensen weighed five fish for 12lbs 11oz today and took home a check for $63,000, which included sponsor contingencies.

Bill Shimota brought in five fish for ten pounds to secure second place with a three day total of 37lbs 11oz. He started out fishing Walker Bay for big fish. He picked one up about 45 minutes into it and then stuck it out there until 10am. He then went looking for unders and it took until 1:30pm to pick four up, leaving him with 45 minutes to try to find another over. He never got another bite.

He moved around a lot looking for fish. A couple times he picked up the trolling motor and idled around the breaks in Walker Bay watching his Lowrance, but the fish just weren’t there today. “They were just gone. It wasn’t just one spot, it was the whole area. It was just odd,” he said.

Mark Courts took third place by bringing in four fish for 10lbs 8oz, which put his three day total at 37lbs 5oz. “I was a little worried about what was going to happen to my key spot today and when I got there it was like glass. It looked like and aquarium,” he said.

Courts then went to plan B. “We went rigging and in the first spot we caught a nice 17.5 inch fish. In the third spot we caught three more weigh fish and at that point I had to make a decision. It was noon and I knew I had to get another over to win.” By choosing to look for overs and only bring four fish to the scales, Courts missed second place by six ounces. “But that’s fishing and you only get the opportunity to do this every now and then. When you get the opportunity you have to go for the win.”

Alan Wegleitner took first place on the co-angler side and took home a check for $6000.

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