Takasaki wins FLW tournament at Red Wing

Star Tribune Club Outdoors blogger and Pro Staff member Ted Takasaki won the FLW tournament that ended Saturday, May 9, at Red Wing.
Here's the report from FLW:

Takasaki, of East Gull Lake, Minn., and co-angler Gary Speicher of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, caught five walleyes weighing 20 pounds, 11 ounces to win the Walmart FLW Walleye Tour presented by Berkley on the Mississippi River in Red Wing, Minn. Takasaki had a four-day catch of 20 walleyes weighing 93-5. He won by more than 14 pounds winning the nationally televised tournament that features anglers from 19 states and Canada. Takasaki took home $33,333 for his efforts.

"I am so grateful," said Takasaki. "It has been a long time since the last big victory. I have been right there many times and this is such a great feeling. If you could bottle it and sell it, you would be a millionaire."

Takasaki said he started the day in the river and spent time on six spots pulling in his winning catch. "I felt it was going to be a tough bite with the cold front, so I started in the river because most of the time river fish don't seem to be affected as much with the cold. I got four decent fish trolling and thought I should go after my big fish from yesterday and right away I caught about a 27-incher and came back around and caught about a 23-incher and I knew I had about 20 pounds. That is what I was shooting for."

"This river has always been tough for me over the years. The real key for me doing well the last four days was being versatile. I trolled crankbaits with leadcore and caught a lot of my saugers in the 20- to 21-inch range to make sure I had a limit. Then I went looking for the big fish."