BENTON, Ky. – Pro William Davis of Russellville, Ala., caught five bass weighing 21 pounds, 12 ounces to lead day one of the EverStart Series Central Division event on Kentucky Lake presented by Yamaha. The winning pro will take home a Ranger 519 VX powered by a Yamaha or Evinrude outboard, Minn Kota trolling motor, Garmin electronics and EverStart Batteries plus $10,000.
“I had an excellent practice day on Monday,” Davis said. “In fact it’s the best day I’ve ever had as far as just finding the fish.”
Davis is fishing as many as 20 ledges on the lake. On Wednesday, he would pull up to a spot, make a few casts and if he got bit, he stayed for a while longer, and if not, he moved on to another spot. “Most of my fish are coming 8-14 feet deep,” Davis said.
Most of the pros admitted they were fishing ledges and that the bite seemed to improve as the day progressed. Local anglers dominated the leaderboard with six of the top-10 pros calling Kentucky Lake their home fishery. “I’m covering 15-20 miles of the lake,” said Yamaha pro Terry Bolton of Paducah.
“The fish have been biting better later in the day,” said Drew Lynch of Paducah. Lynch said early Wednesday morning that he hadn’t been catching many smallmouths but ended up bringing a beautiful smallie to the scales that broke the 4-pound mark.
Rounding out the top-five pros are Sam Lashlee of Camden, Tenn. (five bass, 18 pounds, 4 ounces); Drew Lynch of Paducah (five bass, 17 pounds, 14 ounces); Terry Bolton of Paducah (five bass, 17 pounds, 10 ounces); and David Curtis of Trinity, Texas (five bass, 17 pounds, 6 ounces).
Robert Gulley of Tupelo, Miss. caught five bass weighing 15 pounds, 14 ounces lead the Co-angler Division on day one. Gulley was fishing soft plastics behind his pro partner Yancy Windam of Gordo, Ala. who sits in 8th place after day one.
Rounding out the top-five co-anglers are Melinda Mize of Ben Lomond, Ark. (five bass, 15 pounds, 2 ounces); Richard Holt of Camden, Tenn. (five bass, 14 pounds, 9 ounces); Keith Ray of Florence, Ala. (five bass, 14 pounds, 3 ounces); and Tom Medlock of Licking, Mo. (five bass, 14 pounds, 1 ounce).
Travis Loyd of Vienna, Ill. caught a 6-pound, 9-ounce largemouth on a Texas-rigged tube to win the $725 Snickers Big Bass Award in the Pro Division while John Ballard of Kansas City, Mo. caught a 5-pound, 15-ounce bass to win $245 for big bass in the Co-angler Division.
Anglers caught 1,017 bass weighing 2,496 pounds.
EverStart Series tournaments are four-day events consisting of two rounds. The entire field competes Wednesday and Thursday, and the top 10 pros and co-anglers – based on two-day accumulated weights – advance to the final round. Anglers start at zero Friday, and pro and co-angler winners are determined Saturday based on two-day accumulated weights.