PEORIA, Ariz. – Pro Rudy Baldizan Jr. of Peoria, Ariz., caught a two-day total of seven bass weighing 17 pounds, 7 ounces to lead the first round of the $214,525 EverStart Series Western Division event on Lake Pleasant near Peoria, Ariz. Baldizan, the leader from day one, only needed two bass weighing 5 pounds to maintain his lead. The top 20 pros and co-anglers, based on cumulative weight from the first two days of competition, advanced to Friday’s round where the winning pro could earn as much as $60,400 in cash and prizes.
The second day of the EverStart Series Western Division wasn’t much different from the first day. Skies were overcast for part of the day and morning temperatures were in the low 40s. Water temperatures are currently in the low- to mid-50s on Lake Pleasant, and quality bass have been hard to find. Most anglers are targeting fish in 20 to 50 feet of water.
“The fishing was really, really tough today,” Baldizan said. “As I expected, the cold front shut the fish down. Like yesterday, I used a drop-shot but today I also threw some reaction baits. I caught several fish in shallow water but they were small. My keepers came in deeper water.
“Tomorrow I’ll do the same thing I did today, but with fewer boats on the water, I’ll be able to get to more areas. My main goal was to make the top 20, and I did that. So I now I’ll have to make another goal.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Marcus Clouse of Henderson, Nev. (seven bass, 16 pounds, 2 ounces); Kevin Martin of El Cajon, Calif. (seven bass, 14 pounds, 1 ounce); Michael Bennett of Roseville, Calif. (10 bass, 14 pounds); and Mike Folkestad of Yorba Linda, Calif. (10 bass, 13 pounds, 15 ounces).
Ralph Wells of Castaic, Calif., jumped from third place to take the lead in the Co-angler Division thanks to a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 14 pounds, 9 ounces.
“I was pretty lucky both days,” Wells said. “I caught about 10 to 15 keepers each day. We were culling by 9 a.m. yesterday, and my pro partner (William McAninch of Chatsworth, Calif.) and I were culling by 10:30 a.m. today. I was drop-shotting a small finesse worm to a certain depth and just shaking it.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Steve Amata of Payson, Utah (10 bass, 13 pounds, 11 ounces); Jeff Grant of La Mirada, Calif. (nine bass, 12 pounds, 10 ounces); Tony Sarkis of Phoenix (seven bass, 11 pounds, 4 ounces); and Mark Meddock of Woodland, Calif. (eight bass, 11 pounds, 3 ounces).
Harry Jioras of Cape Fair, Mo., earned $500 as the big-bass award winner in the Pro Division, thanks to a 4-pound, 2-ounce bass. Manny Ramirez of Huntington Beach, Calif., claimed co-angler big-bass honors with a 3-pound, 12-ounce bass that earned him $200.
Anglers caught 544 bass Thursday, including 20 five-bass limits. Total weight for bass caught Thursday was 788 pounds, 10 ounces. Nearly 99 percent of the bass were released.
Anglers will take off each morning at 7 a.m. from Pleasant Harbor Marina in Peoria. Friday and Saturday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 18551 N. 83rd Ave. in Glendale beginning at 4 p.m. The community is encouraged to attend daily takeoffs and weigh-ins.
A full field of 162 boats competed for two days to determine the top 20 pros and 20 co-anglers who advanced to Friday’s semifinal round based on their two-day accumulated weight. Weights are cleared for the semifinal round, and anglers compete for one day to determine who will advance to Saturday’s final round. Only the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers compete Saturday, and the winner is determined by the heaviest two-day weight.
The winning pro is guaranteed $8,500 cash plus an Evinrude- or Yamaha-powered Ranger 519 VS equipped with Garmin electronics, a Minn Kota trolling motor and EverStart Batteries. If the winner is the original owner of a Ranger boat, he will receive a $10,000 bonus from Ranger for a top pro award worth $60,400. If he is a qualifying participant in the Ranger Cup incentive program, Ranger will award another $3,000 cash (or $1,500 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant if not the winner). The program also includes the “Powered by Yamaha” contingency award, which awards an additional 50 percent of Ranger Cup bonus to the Ranger Cup winner if the boat is powered by a Yamaha outboard. Garmin will award the winning pro $1,000 if he uses only Garmin electronics and at least one unit is a qualifying unit.
The winning co-angler is guaranteed $4,500 cash, and if he is a Ranger boat owner, Ranger will award him a new Ranger 519 VS for a total prize package worth $34,500. Co-anglers who make the final round of each regular-season EverStart Series event and wear an EverStart/Evinrude shirt and cap on stage are awarded points toward the EverStart Batteries and Evinrude Outboard Engines Co-angler Award. The co-angler receiving the most points by the end of the season receives a 2004 Evinrude 225HO Direct Injection outboard engine rigged on a Ranger boat equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor and EverStart batteries.
The EverStart Series features a pro/co-angler format with pros supplying the boats, fishing from the front deck against other pros and controlling boat movement. Co-anglers fish from the back deck and compete against other co-anglers. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points that determine angler standings. Two hundred points are awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 points for third, and so on.
Designed as a pathway to the $6.8 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the world’s most lucrative bass-tournament series, the $3.88 million EverStart Series features four divisions – Eastern, Central, Northern and Western – with four regular-season events each. The season culminates with the $335,975 EverStart Series Championship presented by Energizer, which will be held Nov. 3-6 on Lake Cumberland near Somerset, Ky. The event will be broadcast to 65 million subscribers of the Outdoor Life Network on the “FLW Outdoors” television series. Western Division anglers who finish in the top 30 in the final points standings are eligible to compete in the championship.
The second Western Division tournament will be held March 17-20 on Lake Havasu in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., followed by a stop on Clear Lake in Clearlake, Calif., April 14-17. Regular-season competition concludes May 5-8 with a tournament presented by Garmin on the California Delta near Oakley, Calif.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors is the world’s leading marketer of competitive fishing. FLW Outdoors-sanctioned tournament trails are the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour and Wal-Mart RCL Walleye League. EverStart Batteries, the best-selling batteries in the world, are marketed exclusively by Wal-Mart stores.
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 visit FLWOutdoors.com.