GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. – It was another good day for the locals at the EverStart Series Central Division event on Kentucky Lake, but it was Rogersville, Ala., pro Jonathan Newton who led the 20-angler semifinal-round field Friday with a five-bass limit weighing 22 pounds, 10 ounces – more than 3 pounds heavier than the stringer weighed in by No. 2 angler David Young of Mayfield. The top 10 pros will continue fishing Saturday for the heaviest two-day weight, and the winning pro will receive as much as $61,900 in cash and prizes, including a fully rigged Ranger boat.
Newton may have dominated the competition Friday, but he says he’s not exactly sure how. The Ranger pro – who is no stranger to the winner’s circle, having taken home the trophy at a 2003 EverStart Series event on Alabama’s Pickwick Lake – led the Central Division points standings last year heading into the Kentucky Lake event. But after a disappointing 162nd-place finish, he relinquished the points lead, ultimately finishing the year ranked 28th.
“This lake kind of messed me up last year,” Newton said. “I had a little revenge to get on Kentucky Lake. I don’t know what I’ve got left. I fished really hard today. I caught all my fish out of two different areas, but I haven’t yet fished my best area out on the main lake.”
Newton’s season hasn’t been quite as successful as last season – he was ranked 102nd in Central Division points standings heading into this week’s tournament. “This year has been quite bad,” he said. “The last tournament needs to be a good one.” This event is the last of four regular-season events in the Central Division presented by Schick Quattro.
Newton caught all of his bass Friday on the Kentucky Lake side of Kentucky/Barkley, deep cranking in 10 to 15 feet of water. He says he had his limit by 10 a.m. He faces stiff local competition in the finals, as eight of the top 10 final-round pros call Kentucky Lake home.
Rounding out the top five pros are Young (five bass, 19 pounds, 7 ounces); Britt Cone of Benton (five bass, 18 pounds, 4 ounces); Billy Schroeder of Paducah (five bass, 16 pounds, 4 ounces); and Sam Lashlee of Camden, Tenn. (five bass, 16 pounds, 3 ounces).
David Fields of Sikeston, Mo., leads the 10 final-round co-anglers thanks to a five-bass catch Friday that weighed 17 pounds, 15 ounces. The limit gave him a solid 2-pound, 7-ounce lead over second-place angler Ron Bricker of Indianapolis. He caught his tournament-leading bass from the back of Cone’s Ranger and is in the hunt for a top co-angler award worth as much as $35,000 in cash and prizes.
“I bet between the two of us we caught 30 to 35 keepers,” said Fields, who is fishing his first career EverStart Series event. “I caught my two biggest ones on a jig, and I culled with a Carolina rig. We were catching them anywhere from 25 feet to maybe 8 or 9 feet on the top of a ledge. I’m excited; my goal was to make the top 20. I had great partners, and I knew that’s what it would take, but I had to catch them, too. I’ve got a long way to go. I’ve never been in a situation like this before, and I’m not sure how I’m going to react tomorrow.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Bricker (five bass, 15 pounds, 8 ounces); Team Yamaha angler Frank Divis Sr. of Fayetteville, Ark. (five bass, 13 pounds, 13 ounces); Jon Lessard of Tullahoma, Tenn. (five bass, 13 pounds, 10 ounces); and Woody (James) Clark of Bandera, Texas (five bass, 12 pounds, 4 ounces).
Moors Resort in Gilbertsville hosts the final-round takeoff at 6 a.m. Saturday. The final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 310 W. Fifth St. in Benton beginning at 3:30 p.m. The community is encouraged to attend the final takeoff and weigh-in.
A full field of 200 pros and 200 co-anglers began the tournament Wednesday and competed for two days for one of 20 semifinal-round slots in each division based on two-day accumulated weights. Weights were cleared for Friday’s competition, and anglers competed one day for one of 10 final-round slots in each division. Weights carry over for the final round, and winners are determined by the heaviest two-day weights.
The winning pro is guaranteed $10,000 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 $61,900. 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), and Yamaha will match 50 percent of Ranger Cup winnings if the angler’s 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 $5,000 cash, and if he is a Ranger boat owner, Ranger will award him a new Ranger 519 VS for a total prize package worth $35,000. 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 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, 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. Central Division anglers who finish in the top 40 in the final points standings are eligible to compete in the championship.
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.