DETROIT – Barry Bucciarelli of Romulus, Mich., claimed the No. 1 qualifying spot Friday going into the final round of the $185,000 EverStart Series tournament on Lake Erie with five smallmouth bass weighing 20 pounds, 6 ounces.
Bucciarelli, who is fishing his first EverStart Series tournament, will be competing Saturday against nine other finalists in the Pro Division for a top award of $15,000 cash and a Mercury- or Yamaha-powered Ranger boat with Minn Kota trolling motor. 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 142 pros was whittled to the top 30 Thursday and cut again to the top 10 after Friday’s semifinal round.
“It feels good to be in this position,” Bucciarelli said. “I’m not letting it get to me, because I know that things can change. But hopefully everything will go well (Saturday).”
Bucciarelli caught a two-day total of seven bass weighing 24 pounds, 6 ounces to make the first cut in 10th place Thursday. Most of his bass during the first three days of competition were caught off a shallow flat about 25 miles from the takeoff site at Elizabeth Park using tubes and spinnerbaits. As for the fickle weather, which caused a variety of problems for many competitors fishing the wide-open waters of Lake Erie, Bucciarelli isn’t worried. “It can’t get much worse than it has already been, so I’m going right back out there.”
Rounding out the top five pros were Jon Jezierski of Troy, Mich., with five bass weighing 19 pounds, 6 ounces; Roger Miller of Ottawa Lake, Mich., with five bass weighing 19 pounds, 5 ounces; Mike Trombly of Perrysburg, Ohio, with five bass weighing 19 pounds, 1 ounce; and Steve Clapper of Lima, Ohio, with five bass weighing 18 pounds, 13 ounces.
Opening round leader Koby Kreiger of Osceola, Ind., made the cut in sixth place with five bass weighing 18 pound, 6 ounces.
Miles Johnson of Beaver Creek, Ohio, retained the top qualifying spot in the Co-angler Division with five bass weighing 18 pounds, 1 ounce. He made the semifinal round cut from 141 to 30 co-anglers Thursday in first place with a two-day total of eight bass weighing 25 pounds, 8 ounces.
“So far this week I’ve fished St. Clair, Lake Erie and the Detroit River,” Johnson said. “It feels great. This is the first time I’ve been in first place like this going into the finals.”
Jeff Brown of Holland, Mich., qualified in second place with five bass weighing 18 pounds, 1 ounce followed by Barry Baldwin of Dayton, Ohio, with five bass weighing 17 pounds, 6 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.
Saturday’s action begins at 7 a.m. at Elizabeth Park Marina. The final weigh-in begins at 4 p.m. at the Wal-Mart Supercenter located at 2155 North Telegraph Road in Monroe, Mich.
The 4-year-old EverStart Series includes three divisions-Eastern, Central and Northern-with four events each plus a year-end championship presented by Conseco. Tournament winners and the top 50 pros and top 50 co-anglers from each division will earn a spot in the championship, which will be held Nov. 7-10 on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Ala. 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.