CLEWISTON, Fla. – After weighing in five bass that registered 19 pounds, 4 ounces, Jay Stuart, 41, of West Palm Beach, Fla., leads 10 of the nation’s top professional anglers into Saturday’s final round of the EverStart Batteries Series tournament on Lake Okeechobee.
Stuart, a crane operator by trade, caught his fish, including a 6-pounder and an 8-pound largemouth, on a one-half ounce spinnerbait. The fish were caught out of eelgrass in the south end of the lake.
“After I caught those two big fish back to back, I knew I had a shot at being in the top five,” says Stuart, who is qualifying for the final round for the first time. “Tomorrow, I’m going to concentrate on getting a limit, and hopefully I can get a few more good fish.”
Finishing the round in second and third position in the pro division were Robert Beatty of Orlando, Fla., with 17 pounds, 8 ounces and Sandy Melvin of Boca Grande, Fla., with 16 pounds, 4 ounces.
In the co-angler division, Steve Montelaro of Palm Harbor, Fla., led the field with five bass weighing 15 pounds, 5 ounces. David Mullins of Port Saint Luce, Fla., was in second with 11 pounds, 3 ounces, and Judy Israel, the only women remaining in the competition, weighs in third with 8 pounds, 13 ounces.
On Saturday, anglers will start over and fish for one day to determine the victor. The winning pro will receive $10,000 and an Evinrude powered Ranger bass boat. The winning co-angler will collect $6,000.
Saturday’s action begins at 7 a.m. at Roland Martin’s Marina located at 920 East Del Monte Ave. in Clewiston. The weigh-in begins at 3:30 p.m. at the Wal-Mart Supercenter located on Highway 27 North in Clewiston.
The three-year-old EverStart Series is comprised of two divisions, Eastern and Central, with four multi-day events per division. The top 75 pros and co-anglers from each division will advance to the year-end EverStart Invitational Challenge at Cypress Gardens, Fla., which features a purse of $360,000.
Over the course of the season, the EverStart Series awards anglers up to $1.7 million in cash and prizes. It also provides a pathway to the prestigious Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the richest tournament series in history. Winning anglers in the pro and co-angler divisions of each EverStart tournament, as well as the overall top 10 anglers, based on a system of points and pounds, receive automatic berths in the 2001 FLW Tour.