NATCHITOCHES, La. – Danny Gulledge of Hamburg, Ark., caught five bass that weighed 18 pounds, 8 ounces to lead opening day of the four-day, $239,325 EverStart Series event on the Red River near Natchitoches. A field of 158 pros are in the hunt for a top pro award worth as much as $61,900 in cash and prizes, including a fully-rigged Ranger 519VS Comanche. One hundred and fifty-eight co-anglers are also competing in the event, the fourth and final regular-season Central Division tournament, for a top co-angler award of up to $27,800 in cash and prizes, including a Ranger 519VS Comanche.
Hot and muggy weather is generally par for the course for a June tournament in Louisiana, and Wednesday was no exception. Temperatures soared to the low-to-mid-90s, with a heat index well over 100 degrees. Despite the sweltering heat, Gulledge still managed to catch a cool five-bass limit on a spinner bait in back water areas.
“The hot weather is perfect for my kind of fishing,” said Gulledge, who finished eighth last year on the Red River. “I just want to catch enough [Thursday] to make the cut.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Craig Powers of Rockwood, Tenn. (five bass, 16 pounds, 8 ounces); Keith Surber of Longview, Texas (five bass, 13 pounds, 14 ounces); Gerald Guin of Castor, La. (five bass, 13 pounds, 10 ounces); and Kevin Short of Mayflower, Ark. (five bass, 12 pounds, 15 ounces).
Chris Darby of Mount Ida, Ark., leads the Co-angler Division thanks to a five-bass catch Wednesday that weighed 10 pounds, 2 ounces. He caught his tournament-leading bass on an Excalibur Pop-R.
“I lost my first fish today,” said Darby, who has never led in an EverStart Series event. “I calmed down after that and had a great day of fishing.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Bruce Dale of Jamestown, Ohio (three bass, 9 pounds, 7 ounces); Gerald Andrews of Benton, Ky. (three bass, 9 pounds, 2 ounces); Jim Hargrave of Cushing, Okla. (three bass, 9 pounds); and Chris Phillips of Little Rock, Ark. (five bass, 7 pounds, 14 ounces).
Joe Gerard of Concordia, Kan., earned $750 as the big-bass award winner in the Pro Division Wednesday thanks to a 5-pound, 13-ounce bass. Terry Pettle of Wagoner, Okla., took co-angler big-bass honors and $250 with a 4-pound, 13-ounce bass.
A total of 764 bass were caught Wednesday, including 63 five-bass limits.
Anglers take off each morning at 6 a.m. from Morgan’s Landing in Natchitoches. Thursday’s weigh-in will also be held at Morgan’s Landing beginning at 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 925 Keyser Ave. in Natchitoches beginning at 4 p.m. The community is encouraged to attend daily takeoffs and weigh-ins.
Following Thursday’s conclusion of the opening round, the top 20 pros and 20 co-anglers based on their two-day accumulated weight advance to Friday’s semifinal round. Weights are cleared for Friday’s competition, and the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers advance to Saturday’s final round based on Friday’s total weight. Weights are again cleared for Saturday’s competition, and anglers compete for the heaviest one-day weight.
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.
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.
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, the world’s leading marketer of competitive fishing, administers the EverStart Series. Other FLW Outdoors-sanctioned tournament trails include the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, the Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour and the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye League. 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 explore FLWOutdoors.com.
FLW Outdoors is named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood.