Inside Elite boats: Morizo Shimizu

Welcome to Elite Series pro Morizo Shimizu’s bass boat!

His rig of choice is a Ranger Z521 Comanche powered by a 250-horse Mercury Optimax ProXS.

On his Motorguide trolling motor, he has zip ties and tape along his transducer cables. Look at the attention to detail!

Shimizu has been using a Japanese-made Hondex depthfinder. He has lots of confidence in it because he has been using it for a long time.

He says that he must be able to use it with his eyes closed.

Here are his signature rods made by Evergreen International and the J-Dream reels that he designed for Daiwa. He gave the gear ratio ideas to Daiwa and they came out with new gear ratio for his needs.

Since he is away from Japan during the tournament season, Evergreen International sends him prototype rods to test while he is in the States. This newest prototype was sent on 4/18/14.

In the left front rod box, he usually keeps about 30 combos in his boat during the tournaments.

Now he shows me the center console, and things are really packed in there! Let’s see what we can find. He said that there is no order for these boxes. Whatever he can carry goes into this compartment during the practice period. Then a few boxes that he won’t use will be taken back to the room during the tournament.

Morizo said, “What do you want to see? I showed you everything! You better get ready to see what you will find!”

He uses plastic bins to store his baits. Some are Japanese made, some American made, and of course they are labeled in Japanese.

The Modo brand of baits are made by Evergreen International. Modo lures are all designed by Morizo Shimizu. He has to have at least a few of every color he has made.

This is his signature pencil popper called Shower Blows.

There is another box full of topwater plugs. His signature popper, One’s Bug, is also found in this box.

Here is his latest design, a vibration plug called Zeta.

He spent almost seven years developing this lure until it finally hit the Japanese market. He invested a lot of time into this signature model. He never lets Evergreen release products until he is fully satisfied. He wants everybody and anybody to catch fish with his lures and to be satisfied with the end product.

Here are his jigs by Modo.

Take a good look.

The stickers that he passes out to fans also go on his tackleboxes.

These are Evergreen Wild Hunch crankbaits. They were his first hard bait design.

This is one of his go-to baits. It has lots of teeth marks.

These are some prototypes of other depth versions of Wild Hunch he is working on and testing. He said he can’t open it for a closer look yet.

He can’t stop pulling out boxes of lures!

In the right front side of his boat, he keeps his rain jacket, life jacket and some extra clothes. He said that it is a mess after practice and he didn’t let me look into this box. So now we move to the smaller compartment closer to the driver seat.

In it are terminal tackle boxes including, hooks, weights, weight stoppers, swim jigs and other heavy things. He keeps them near the back of the boat for better boat performance.

Here are his signature Gamakatsu hooks in different sizes.

Modo swim jigs.

Here’s a better look at his go-to swim jig.

Below these boxes are bags of spinnerbaits, separated by colors in zip-style bags.

The Modo D-Zone spinnerbait is Morizo’s own design.

These items lay on the bottom half of this compartment.

He also has spare sunglasses in this box for easy access to change them in a different light.

Shimizu designed these shades for Zeal Optics.

More stickers!

His scents stay in the center compartment with hard baits for easy access.

This is his passenger side glove box. He wants to have a shield for his partner, so he always orders his boats with dual consoles. A digital camera stays in there. Yes, he does ask his Marshal to take a few photos during the day for his blogs in English!

He has allergies to insect bites, so he always has to carry these with him.

A fish grip was found on the floor within easy reach when he catches fish that can’t be grabbed by hand.

Scales were also found on the floor, which are in Japanese. They read in kilograms not pounds.

This is his center box between the seats.

Ropes, medicine, insurance paperwork, and his smartphone are here for easy access as needed.

Of course, it’s in Japanese.

Passenger side back box is full of plastics made by Bait Breath, another Japanese manufacturer. Plastics are heavy so they stay in the back of the boat.