Sherwood shines Saturday
Maryland co-angler wins at Lake Champlain
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – Jason Sherwood caught a hefty 17-pound, 5-ounce limit Saturday and won the Co-angler Division of EverStart Series Northeast competition at Lake Champlain with a final-round weight of 31-12.
“The past four days, I’ve probably caught more weight in bass than I have over the past two or three seasons put together,” Sherwood said. “It’s kind of overwhelming.”
Fishing with pro Jacob Powroznik Saturday, Sherwood struggled early but found his groove and mined a deep rock pile to fill out his limit with quality smallmouth bass later in the day.
“Today, we were fishing in 30 feet of water. I was throwing a Carolina-rigged lizard with a ¾-ounce lead weight. I was using a 16-inch leader in the grass and going to a 12-inch leader on rock,” he said. “I was just trying to keep it as slow as I could and drag it. I didn’t throw the Carolina rig until the end of the day. When I caught the big one, we stuck with that for the remainder of the day.”
A 31-year-old fourth-grade teacher, Sherwood initially planned to skip this tournament, the last Northeast event of the year, since the school year started several weeks ago.
“A friend of mine talked me into coming, and I’m glad he did,” said Sherwood, who collected $4,850 for the victory. “I was lucky to get these few days off.”
Second place for the co-anglers and $3,850 went to Jon Newman of Anderson, S.C., for a final total of 10 bass weighing 30 pounds, 1 ounce.
“I saw probably 20 more fish than I caught today,” he said. “This lake is loaded. It is an absolutely factory.”
By tiebreaker, day-three leader Chad Hicks of Rockville, Va., finished third for the co-anglers and collected $3,360 for 10 bass also weighing 30 pounds, 1 ounce.
Co-angler Rex Magargle of Turbotville, Pa., finished fourth with 10 bass weighing 27 pounds, 14 ounces. He earned $2,360.
Bobbie Barfield of Spring Grove, Va., rounded out the top five co-angler finishers with a 10-bass weight of 27 pounds, 10 ounces. He collected $1,860.
Rounding out the top 10 Co-angler Division finishers at Lake Champlain:
6th: John Cook of Horsham, Pa., 10 bass, 24-10, $1,760
7th: Dan Harris of Tewksbury, Mass., 10 bass, 21-4, $1,660
8th: Dana Perrotte of Winooski, Vt., seven bass, 19-5, $1,560 (opening-round leader)
9th: Thomas Wilson of Ravenna, Ohio, six bass, 13-2, $1,460
10th: Bill Hulet of Broken Arrow, Okla., three bass, 8-11, $1,360
Coming up
The next EverStart Series event is the final regular-season tournament of the year. It’s the Northern Division closer on the Detroit River at Trenton, Mich., Sept. 21-24.
The EverStart Series Championship will be held on Pickwick Lake at Florence, Ala., Nov. 2-5.