EverStart Batteries Series
Central Division
Kentucky/Barkley Lake, Gilbertsville, Ky.
May 3-6
If only one of them had eaten another minnow … It was as close as it gets on the pro side in the final round at Gilbertsville. When Keith Monson of Burgin, Ky., weighed in 19 pounds, 1 ounce of fish he took a commanding, 5-pound lead over the rest of the field. Then came contender Mike Hawkes of Sabinal, Texas, whose opaque sack looked like it held a whole lot of fish. Several nail-biting moments passed as Hawkes weighed each of his big fish and his total crept toward Monson’s leading weight. On Hawkes’ final fish, the scale read 19 pounds, 0 ounces. A jubilant Monson accepted the trophy in a rare 1-ounce victory. Afterwards, EverStart Tournament Director Jerry Stakely asked Monson if he thought 19-1 was the magic number for the day. Replied an anxious Monson, “At that point, I was thinking the magic number was 911.”
Fish on, fish off … Monson’s 19-1 might have been even weightier had he landed two of his bigger fish on day four. While working his way northward from the south end of Lake Barkley, he lost two 4-pounders near the end of the day. … On the other hand, Hawkes’ 19 pounds was more than a little auspicious. He caught only five fish all day four, each of them big’uns.
Blitzkreiger … If you haven’t heard of pro Koby Kreiger, you haven’t followed bass fishing this year. The young angler from Osceola, Ind., has taken the tournament trail by storm. He finished fourth at FLW Lake Murray, S.C., and fifth at EverStart Kentucky Lake. At both tournaments he led the pro field at some point during the four-day event. At Kentucky Lake, he dominated the first two days of competition, sacking almost 8 pounds more than his closest competitor, Shawn Penn of Benton, Ky., over two days. Kreiger weighed in over 50 pounds of fish through day three and totaled 62-6 for the tourney. Why is Kreiger so good? Anglers who’ve fished with him say his sight-fishing ability is almost unparalleled. One even went so far as to say he’s better than legendary sight fisherman Shaw Grigsby of Gainesville, Fla.
And the water table turned … Kentucky and Barkley lakes are an attractive destination for anglers looking to fish shallow when the water’s high and fish are up on the bank. That was the case the week before the tournament as EverStart anglers pre-fished on mouth-watering, high lake levels. Then, as tournament time rolled around, water levels on the reservoirs were dropped and the bass headed for deeper grounds. The falling water line forced many anglers to shift their fishing strategies on the fly and fish differently than they did in practice. Pro Curt Lytle of Suffolk, Va., skipped another bass tournament he was scheduled to fish that week specifically so he could fish on Kentucky and Barkley. “This lake is awesome when the water’s high,” he said, “but it turns into almost another normal lake when the water goes down.”
Sound bites:
“Well, it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye, you know.”
– Mike Hawkes, on his close second-place finish.
“It wasn’t really that close. It was only about $896,000.”
– Pro Darrel Robertson of Jay, Okla., who won last year’s Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship and the Ranger M1 Millennium tournament, when asked how close he came to winning a million dollars on last year’s tour. Robertson placed 12th and took home $2,500 at the EverStart Central competition in Gilbertsville.
“You hung around like a hair on a biscuit.”
– Jerry Stakely to co-angler Wesley Burnett of Hot Springs, Ark., who squeaked into the final round with a 4-pound, 9-ounce finish on day three.