SANDUSKY, Ohio – Twenty wide-eyed, hopeful and focused anglers set out onto a calm Sandusky Bay at dawn in search of smallmouth bass and lots of cash in today’s final round of the third $185,000 EverStart Series Northern Division tournament of the year.
Winds have shifted a little for Saturday’s action and could force competitors to rework their respective plans a bit.
“I’m going to go back to plan A,” said ninth-place qualifying pro Paul Rambo of Brighton, Mich. Rambo, who is the only finalist fishing out of a Ranger walleye boat to better cope with the big water on Lake Erie, said he will head back to an area of fish he found near a helicopter pad in the Canadian part of the lake. The location provided him enough bass to take over the Pro Division lead on day two.
Chance of precipitation is slight today, but anglers will likely still have to deal with heavy winds on the open water, which will turn up the stress level on their long boat runs but also turn on the smallmouth bite in a few areas.
Today is the fourth and final day of EverStart competition on Sandusky Bay. All competitors restarted the day with zero weight and are competing in a one-day shootout to determine the winner. The winning pro will receive $15,000 and a Ranger boat plus a $1,000 bonus from Garmin if he or she was using a fixed-mount Garmin sonar product. The winning co-angler will collect $6,000 cash.
The final weigh-in begins at 4 p.m. at the Wal-Mart Supercenter located at 5500 Milan Road in Sandusky.
Day-four vital statistics
Sunrise: 6:50 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 63 degrees
Expected high temperature: 76 degrees
Wind: S to SE 10 to 15 mph
Relative humidity: 93 percent
Day’s outlook: Partly cloudy
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