OKEECHOBEE, Fla. – Pro Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla., caught five bass weighing 21 pounds, 5 ounces Friday to lead the semifinal round of the EverStart Series Eastern Division event on Lake Okeechobee in Okeechobee, Fla. Martin, who is fishing on his home lake, leads a pack of 10 Pro Division anglers who will compete Saturday for a top pro award of as much as $61,900 in cash and prizes.
Sunny skies and highs in the 70s gave Okeechobee anglers a second day of clear, warm weather, which spelled trouble for a few competitors who had been relying on big, prespawn females to be warming themselves in the matted grass. But with a second day of warmer temperatures, many of the bass had moved on to spawning flats, and only the anglers who adjusted to the change were able to make the cut.
Martin found his bass Friday in outside grass lines using a Texas-rigged, 8-inch ribbontail worm with a 1/8-ounce sinker and Matzuo hook. He had 17 pounds by 9:30 a.m. and then started flipping a Matzuo crawdad into heavy cover using a 1-ounce lead sinker and 30-pound supermonofilament line.
“The fish I caught were all prespawn fish in the area I had found,” said Martin, who entered the semifinal round in the No. 6 spot. “With the water temperature rising, the fish are definitely on the move, and I think a lot of guys struggled today who had been doing well earlier in the tournament. The weather is getting nice, and people had trouble locating the fish.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn. (five bass, 14 pounds, 4 ounces); Mark Lamb of West Palm Beach, Fla. (five bass, 12 pounds, 6 ounces); Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va. (five bass, 11 pounds, 14 ounces); and Tony Christian of Hull, Ga., (five bass, 11 pounds, 8 ounces).
Co-angler Asa Godsey of Clewiston, Fla., survived Friday’s field cut with a two-bass catch weighing 9 pounds, 15 ounces to lead the Co-angler Division heading into the final round. He caught his bass Friday using a spinner bait.
“I have been an angler for more than 30 years, and I am having both knees replaced at the end of the season, so I’m fishing from the back of the boat,” said Godsey, who moved to the Lake Okeechobee area from his native Virginia three months ago. “I knew by 8:30 this morning that I’d make the cut, so I just laid back and tried to take care of my knees a little bit. Today my partner was flipping, and I don’t like flipping, but if I’m going to live in Florida I’m going to have to learn.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Jeff Wheeley of Lafayette, Tenn. (four bass, 7 pounds, 2 ounces); Rob Boswell of Winder, Ga. (five bass, 6 pounds, 7 ounces); Steve Poland of West Palm Beach, Fla. (one bass, 6 pounds, 5 ounces); and Ernest Diaz of Fayetteville, Ga., (four bass, 6 pounds, 3 ounces).
One hundred and nineteen bass were caught Friday, including 12 five-bass limits. One hundred percent of the bass were released alive.
A full field of 200 pros and 200 co-anglers descended upon Lake Okeechobee Wednesday and fished for two days for one of 20 spots in Friday’s semifinal round. Weights were cleared for Friday’s competition, and the field was cut again to the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers based on Friday’s catch weight. Weights will be cleared again for Saturday’s competition, and anglers will compete for position and prize money.
The winning pro will take home a guaranteed cash award of $10,000 plus a new Ranger 519VS Comanche equipped with Garmin electronics and powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard. If the winner is the original owner of a Ranger boat, he will receive an additional $10,000 cash bonus from Ranger for a total of $61,900 in cash and prizes. Ranger will also award an additional $3,000 to the winner if he is a Ranger Cup participant, and Garmin will award $1,000 to the winner if his boat is equipped with a fixed-mount Garmin Fishfinder or combination GPS/Sounder.
The winning co-angler is guaranteed $5,000 cash. If the winning co-angler is a registered Ranger owner, he will also receive a new Ranger 519VS Comanche for a total of $27,800 in cash and prizes.
Anglers will take off Saturday at 7 a.m. from Okee-Tantie Marina in Okeechobee followed by the final weigh-in at the Wal-Mart store located on S. Parrott Avenue in Okeechobee, beginning at 4 p.m. The community is encouraged to attend takeoff and weigh-in activities.
Four divisions – Eastern, Central, Northern and Western – comprise the 2003 EverStart Series. Each division stages four regular-season tournaments leading up to the no-entry-fee $335,975 EverStart Series Championship, which will be held on Old Hickory Lake near Gallatin, Tenn., Oct. 29-Nov. 1.
To accommodate tremendous demand, EverStart Series Eastern, Northern and Central division fields have been expanded from 175 pros and 175 co-anglers to 200 pros and 200 co-anglers wherever facilities will allow. Payback in each of the expanded tournaments has also increased from $239,325 to $256,825. The extra cash is spread through the bottom three-quarters of the field, and 10 more places were added to the payout, giving 51st through 60th each $650 on the pro side and $250 on the co-angler side.
In EverStart Series competition, pros supply the boats, control boat movement and fish from the front of each boat against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back of each boat and compete against other co-anglers.
FLW Outdoors will award as much as $20 million through 175 tournaments in 2003.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its six tournament trails. Wal-Mart has been the title sponsor of FLW Outdoors since 1997. For a complete list of FLW Outdoors sponsors and for more information about the premier products and services they offer, please browse this Web site.