Productive Roosevelt demands diligence

EverStart field knuckles down for another round

PAYSON, Ariz. – Lake Roosevelt was plenty generous with its EverStart Series Western Division guests yesterday, but the Salt River impoundment made anglers work for their catches. The field should expect nothing less today, as spots get picked over and fish begin reacting to the pressure.

“The bite is tough out there,” said John Murray, who won a tournament on Roosevelt last weekend. “It’s a battle to get five fish.”

With the pros sacking up 101 limits and co-anglers adding another 54, the day one weigh in filled a solid 2 1/2 hours. Predictably, largemouth dominated the show, with pro leader Kevin Stewart’s 8-pound, 12-ounce pig topping the bunch. (Stewart holds the top spot with 15-6.) Several anglers bagged quality smallmouth, including one that went three and change, compliments of co-angler leader Richard Coffey (12-14).

Twelfth place pro Young Yang found a good smallmouth bite in practice and capitalized on what he described as a last-minute discovery to bag 11-14 on day one. He’ll return to the same deal today.

“I found a shallow cove that had some trees at the end of it and an old roadbed with no trees in it,” Yang said. “I’m fishing over the roadbed, in between the trees. The fish are staging there and some of them are spawning and others are getting ready to make their nests.”

Yang said the fish that are already committed to nests respond aggressively to any intrusion, but true to form, they won’t chase a bait far. Toward the end of his final practice day, he figured out that a jerkbait offered the ideal presentation. Yang threw a Megabass Ito Vision 110 yesterday and he’ll stick with that bait today.

“If something stays in their nest area, they won’t stand it – they’ll come up and grab it,” Yang said. “For this (scenario), I needed a suspending type jerkbait. The bait I’m throwing is a slow floating (model), but the line I’m using is 10-pound fluorocarbon and it pulls the bait down. With the weight of the line, this slow floating bait suspends perfectly.

“I twitch it really fast four or five times to get their attention and get them annoyed. They’ll watch the bait and then I pause it for about four seconds and they’ll come around and grab it. I had my limit by 8 o’clock.”

Other anglers fared well with a variety of shallow and deep presentations. Stewart caught his fish on a ¾-ounce football head jig and a wacky-rigged green pumpkin Senko. He’ll be fishing across points again today.

Second place pro Ken Howden took his flipping game deep into the flooded brush. He knows that returning to the same deal today means a stressful day of finagling fish out of heavy cover in tight spaces. In third place, Josh Bertrand found good early action by throwing jigs and spinnerbaits in the brush.

Crankbaits were the ticket for fourth place pro Chris Kremer. Today, he hopes to return to the same little cove that produced 13-13 yesterday.

Dropshots and Carolina rigs also produced on day one, so they’ll likely see more duty today. Starting today in 95th place, California pro Aaron Lesieur hopes to improve his position by working shaky heads in deep water.

Logistics

Anglers will take off from the Cholla Recreation Site, located five miles NW of the Roosevelt Dam on Highway 188 in Roosevelt, Ariz., at 7:00 each morning. Friday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Cholla Recreation Site beginning at 2:30 p.m. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at the Walmart, located at 300 North Beeline Highway, Payson, Ariz. Saturday’s weigh-in begins at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

Pros will fish for a top award of $35,000 plus a 198VX Ranger boat with 200-horsepower outboard if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. Co-anglers will cast for a top award consisting of a Ranger 177TR with 90-horsepower outboard and $5,000 if Ranger Cup guidelines are met.

The EverStart Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division consists of four tournaments and competitors will be vying for valuable points in each division that could earn them the Angler of the Year title along with $5,000 for the pro and $2,000 for the co-angler. The top 40 pros and co-anglers from each respective division will qualify for the EverStart Series Championship that will be held on Kentucky Lake in Buchanan, Tenn., Oct. 27-30.

The EverStart Series tournament on Lake Roosevelt is being hosted by the Town of Payson, Ariz.

Friday’s conditions:

Sunrise: 7:07 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 45 degrees

Expected high temperature: 64 degrees

Wind: WSW 10-15 mph

Humidity: 30 percent

Day’s outlook: Partly cloudy early, cloudy after noon