Let’s get ready to rumble
Heavyweight battle ensues for Vermilion finals
TOWER, Minn. – Forget the quiet, north woods setting. Forget making nice. Almost all of the top 10 pro finalists in this week’s EverStart Series Northern Division event are seasoned bass-tournament veterans, and every single one of them had their game faces on prior to Saturday’s competition at Minnesota’s Lake Vermilion.
“It’s going to be a battle,” pro Mark Zona of Sturgis, Mich., said at takeoff. Zona qualified for the finals in fourth place Friday.
These EverStart anglers are prepared to duke it out. Combined, the pro field for Saturday’s final round already has 97 FLW outdoors top-10 finishes, and seven of the 10 finalists have already won major tournaments.
That’s a competitive mixture by itself. But toss in the fact that pristine Lake Vermilion has been coughing up record numbers of bass limits all week long, and you have the ingredients for a major Saturday showdown.
Not only did the top 10 cut qualifiers each catch five-bass limits Friday, all 20 pros who fished the semifinals caught limits. In fact, the only competitors not able to haul in limits were the 19th- and 20th-place co-anglers. So there are more than enough spawning smallmouth bass to go around; Saturday is going to be all about catching the biggest ones.
Weather conditions have cleared somewhat compared to Friday. It’s still overcast, but the wind was calm at takeoff and there was no precipitation. However, intermittent showers are predicted as the day wears on.
The winning pro is guaranteed $10,000 cash and an Evinrude- or Yamaha-powered Ranger 519VS Comanche bass boat equipped with EverStart batteries, a Minn Kota trolling motor and Garmin electronics. If the winner is the original owner of a Ranger boat, Ranger will award an additional $10,000 cash bonus for a total prize package of $61,900.
The winning co-angler is guaranteed $5,000 cash. If the co-angler winner is a registered Ranger boat owner, Ranger will also award a new Ranger 519VS Comanche bass boat.
The final weigh-in begins at 3 p.m. on the shore of Lake Vermilion at Fortune Bay Resort.
Saturday’s conditions
Sunrise: 5:12 a.m.
Air temperature at takeoff: 48 degrees
Expected high temperature: 64 degrees
Water temperature at the ramp: 64 degrees
Wind: calm
Relative humidity: 100 percent
Day’s outlook: cloudy
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