Michigan anglers dominate semifinal round
CLAYTON, N.Y. – Neil Vandebiezen of Portage, Mich., and Koby Kreiger of Osceola, Ind., tied for the No. 1 qualifying spot Friday going into the final round of the $185,000 EverStart Series tournament on Lake Ontario with identical catches of five smallmouth bass weighing 21 pounds, 9 ounces.
Vandebiezen, who is fishing in just his second EverStart Series tournament, and Kreiger, who earlier this season won an EverStart Series Central Division tournament on Kentucky Lake, will be competing Saturday against eight other finalists in the Pro Division for a top award of $15,000 cash and a Mercury- or Yamaha-powered Ranger boat with GARMIN electronics. 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 more than 145 pros was whittled to the top 30 Thursday and cut again to the top 10 after Friday’s semifinal round.
“I’m going to catch five and so are the second, third, fourth and fifth place finishers,” said Kreiger, referring to the ensuing final round showdown. “All of us in the top five (Friday) are fishing within 200 yards of one another, so it’s going to be a real shootout.”
Vandebiezen, who had his limit by 7:30 a.m. Friday, agreed with Kreiger’s assessment saying: “I expect whoever gets on the biggest pot of fish is going to win. If it’s calm, we can get on them good, and we will all have nice limits.”
Vandebiezen caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 34 pounds, 9 ounces to make the opening-round cut in third place Thursday while Kreiger made the cut in fifth place with a total of 10 bass weighing 33 pounds, 7 ounces.
Kreiger describes the area of Lake Ontario where the men are fishing as shallow flat where post-spawn smallmouth bass are feeding. The lures of choice for competitors focusing on this area are green tubebaits tied to light line.
Rounding out the top five pros after the semifinal round were three more Michigan residents. Kevin Vida of Clair, Mich., qualified third with five bass weighing 21 pounds, 8 ounces; Art Ferguson III of Saint Clair Shores, Mich., qualified fourth with five bass weighing 18 pounds, 10 ounces; and Mark Zona of Sturgis, Mich., qualified fifth with five bass weighing 17 pounds, 9 ounces.
Vandebiezen’s partner, James Richardson Jr. of Cincinnati, Ohio, claimed the top qualifying spot in the Co-Angler Division with five bass weighing 19 pounds, 15 ounces. He survived the semifinal-round cut from more than 145 co-anglers to 30 co-anglers Thursday in third place with a two-day total of eight bass weighing 23 pounds, 14 ounces.
Dwight Ameling of Fremont, Ind., qualified in second place with five bass weighing 16 pounds, 12 ounces followed by Carl Tripple of Ilion, N.Y., with five bass weighing 16 pounds, 4 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 266 bass were caught Friday, and more than 98 percent of them were released alive.
Saturday’s action begins at 6 a.m. at French Creek Marina in Clayton. The final weigh-in begins at 4 p.m. at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Arsenal Street in Watertown, N.Y.
More than $2.5 million will be awarded during the 2001 EverStart Series season. The series also provides a pathway to the $4.45 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour-bass fishing’s most lucrative tournament series. Top EverStart competitors may also qualify for the Ranger M1 tournament in Mobile, Ala., Feb. 27-March 2, 2002, where they can win up to $1 million in the world’s richest freshwater tournament.