Carlile captures co-angler crown
Wins second EverStart alongside pro winner Tutt
JASPER, Texas – It couldn’t have been scripted any better for Charlie Carlile. Prior to today, the first and last time the Tulsa, Okla., co-angler won an EverStart Series tournament the weather conditions were cold, snowy and miserable. That was at Lake of the Ozarks, Mo., in 1999.
So when this week began at Sam Rayburn Reservoir with nasty, cold wind and harsh precipitation – it even snowed in North Texas – it seemed time for Carlile to step up to the plate again.
“I don’t like to fish under these conditions,” he said. “But my tournament winnings seem to be much greater under adverse conditions.”
An even more telling portent happened when pro Jim Tutt began to pull away from the pack in his division Friday and looked like he might win Saturday. See, the last time Tutt won was also at Lake of the Ozarks in 1999 – in the same kind of conditions that unfolded in East Texas this week.
“I won at Lake of the Ozarks and so did Jim Tutt in that snowstorm,” Carlile said. “And we’ve certainly had the equivalent of a snowstorm here.”
As fate would have it, by Saturday Carlile had made the cuts and came away victorious for the second time in his EverStart career with four bass weighing 12 pounds, 13 ounces. He collected $6,000.
Then Tutt won the Pro Division.
“I guess we must be pretty good cold-weather fishermen,” Carlile said by way of explanation.
As far as he’s concerned, Carlile is a good fisherman – and versatile. Adapting to his pro partners’ various fishing techniques, he used four different main baits on each of the four days of competition. On day one it was a wacky worm. Day two was a Carolina rig with a centipede. Day three was a crankbait.
Today, day four, he went with a red Rat-L-Trap and “just wore the paint off of it,” he said. “It pays to listen to your pro partners.”
While his pro partner Saturday, fourth-place Jeff Ransom of Muldrow, Okla., helped lead him to victory, Carlile admitted that there might just be something more to his successful week of competition.
“I don’t always catch a lot of fish, but I can consistently catch a couple of fish (a day),” he said. “So when the weather’s rough, I don’t know if it’s because others get discouraged and don’t catch many, or if it’s because I can keep catching them. The key is, as a co-angler, you might only get two or three bites a day and you need to boat those fish.”
Carlile boated all five fish that bit him Saturday, which included one throwback short bass. In the end, it was his consistency the led him to the brass ring.
“I’m no better than a hundred of the other guys who fished here,” he said. “The difference was, everything was working. There’s no explanation for the big one that bites on a rainy, cold day. But that’s what you live for. It’s euphoria to win.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers were opening-round leader Steve Francis (2nd place, $4,000) of Brookeland, Texas, with two bass weighing 10 pounds, 13 ounces – including one monster that weighed 8-11 by itself; semifinal-round leader Gerald Andrews (3rd, $3,500) of Benton, Ky., with three bass weighing 10-1; Lonnie Fuller (4th, $3,000) of Hemphill, Texas, with three bass weighing 6-1; and Gary Clark (5th, $2,500) of Sheridan, Ark., with three bass weighing 5-11.
The next EverStart Series event is the March 20-23 Eastern Division tournament on the big-bass waters of Lake Eufaula, Ala. The next Central Division tournament will be held April 3-6 at Grand Lake, Okla.
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