GREENVILLE, Miss. – Harmon Davis of Marlow, Okla, claimed the No. 1 qualifying spot Friday going into the final round of the $185,000 EverStart Series tournament on Lake Ferguson with five bass weighing 13 pounds, 11 ounces.
Davis, who has finished in the top 30 in three straight EverStart Series tournaments this season, will be competing Saturday against nine other finalists in the Pro Division for a top award of $15,000 and a Mercury- or Yamaha-powered Ranger boat. All the finalists start on equal footing as weights from previous rounds of competition are erased, and the winner is determined by the weight of Saturday’s catch. The original field of 165 pros was whittled to the top 30 Thursday and cut again to the top 10 Friday.
“I tell people every day that I could very easily go out and not get a bite,” Davis said. “I’m fishing one little point with three willow trees along a 100 yard stretch. All of my quality fish have come out of those trees.”
Davis caught a two-day total of nine bass weighing 19 pounds, 6 ounces to make the semifinal round cut in 10th place Thursday. He says that most of his bass during the first three days of competition were caught on a brush hawg.
Rounding out the top five pros were Chris McCall of Jasper, Texas, with five bass weighing 13 pounds, 1 ounce; Adam Wright of Benton, Ark., with five bass weighing 11 pounds, 1 ounce; Sam Newby of Pocola, Okla., with five bass weighing 10 pounds, 3 ounces; and Raymond Thomas of Checotah, Okla., with five bass weighing 9 pounds, 13 ounces.
Charles Carlile of Tulsa, Okla., claimed the top qualifying spot in the Co-Angler Division with four bass weighing 10 pounds, 14 ounces. He survived the semifinal round cut from 165 to 30 co-anglers Thursday in sixth place with a two-day total of seven bass weighing 10 pounds, 9 ounces.
“I caught every fish so far on a 1/2-ounce black and blue jig out of shallow shoreline weeds and grass,” said Carlile, who won an EverStart Tournament on Lake of the Ozarks in 1999. “I’ve had three great partners.”
After slipping into the semifinal round in 30th place, Gary Clark of Sheridan, Ark., qualified for the final round in second place with four bass weighing 9 pounds, 2 ounces. Guy Lindstrom of Horseshoe Bend, Ark., made the cut in third place with three bass weighing 8 pounds, 10 ounces.
Like their pro counterparts, co-anglers start from zero Saturday and compete for one day to determine the winner. The winning co-angler will receive $6,000 cash.
A total of 129 bass were caught Friday including eight five-bass limits. More than 98 percent of the bass were released alive.
Saturday’s action begins at 5:30 a.m. at the Washington Street Ramp in Greenville. The final weigh-in begins at 3:30 p.m. at the Wal-Mart Supercenter located at 1746 Highway 1 South in Greenville.
The 4-year-old EverStart Series now includes three divisions-Eastern, Central and Northern-with four events each plus a year-end championship. Tournament winners and the top 50 pros and top 50 co-anglers from each division will earn a spot in the championship presented by Conseco Nov. 7-10 on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Ala. The series also provides a pathway to the $4.45 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour-bass fishing’s most lucrative tournament series.