Casting for votes in championship campaign
EverStart Series Championship anglers go to the ‘poles’ at Lake Cumberland
SOMERSET, Ky. – As the votes from Election Day are still being counted this morning, anglers in the $335,975 EverStart Series Championship on Kentucky’s Lake Cumberland are doing a little campaigning of their own.
These fishing politicians, however, have traded voting polls for fishing poles to begin politicking keeper bass to bite in hopes of becoming the next president of the EverStart Series.
The 150 pro and 150 co-angling candidates in the EverStart Championship field are comprised of the 40 top pros and 40 co-anglers from each of the Eastern, Central and Northern divisions, as well as the 30 top pros and 30 co-anglers from the Western Division.
The winning pro will receive $25,000 cash and a Ranger 519VS, and the winning co-angler will receive $10,000 cash and Ranger 519VS.
But “poling” at Lake Cumberland near Somerset, Ky., is unique because this precinct is both deep and steep.
Most of Lake Cumberland is essentially a gorge filled with water. It is a skinny, winding reservoir of 65,500 acres (full pool) with nearly vertical banks that plunge down into 100-foot depths.
Even with the lake currently drawn down some 20 feet, anglers have to put their depth finders on the 100-foot setting if they want to view the bottom.
“You can go all the way to the back of a pocket and it’s still 50 feet deep,” said EverStart pro Ramie Colson of Cadiz, Ky.
What is bothersome to some anglers is that fall patterns have yet to arrive on Cumberland.
“The water temperature is still 70 degrees,” Colson reported. “It’s like fishing a September lake in November.”
Ozark Trail pro Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., says the cold front that is pushing across the central part of the United States, currently bringing heavy overcast and drizzle to Kentucky, can’t get through the area fast enough.
“I know it sounds crazy – a bass fisherman wanting a cold front – but this lake has been under summerlike doldrums for a week,” he said. “We need a change of some kind to get these fish kicked into more of a fall pattern.”
The change Morgan wants is a significant drop in water temperature. Anglers are complaining that all the baitfish are suspended out in the middle of the coves and pockets over 100 feet of water making for a lot of “undecided voters.”
“It’s like the fish are just milling around out there in the middle of nowhere, and I think a drop in water temperature would get the baitfish moving toward the bank over shallower water – and by shallower I mean the 40- to 50-foot range,” Morgan chuckled. “At least then we might have a shot at them.
“Watch out for those Western Division boys. This lake sets up perfect for their style of fishing.”
Suspended fish often mean drop-shot rigs, and since 30 qualifiers are here from the Western Division, there is little doubt the western anglers will to try to gerrymander the spotted bass vote with drop-shots.
Lake Cumberland has a different legal keeper length for each species of bass in the lake: smallmouth must be at least 18 inches; largemouth must be at least 15 inches; and spotted bass must be at least 12 inches. This makes campaign strategy all the more interesting.
Having enough pull in the “poles” to win this bass-fishing election will come down to who can catch the fish with the most piscatorial votes, so to speak.
“The ideal game plan is to finesse your way into the finals with spotted bass,” said Pedigree pro Greg Pugh of Cullman, Ala. “But in order to win on Saturday, I think a couple of keeper largemouth or smallmouth are going to have to factor into the equation. You can probably make the cuts with spotted bass, but I don’t think you can win with them.”
The day-one weigh-in begins at 3 p.m. EST at General Burnside Park on Lake Cumberland.