Quick Bites: EverStart Championship, Day 3
2003 EverStart Series Championship
Old Hickory Lake, Gallatin, Tenn.
Friday, semifinal round
Instant karma … It only took one day for karma to come to the aid of Tommy Dillon – and when he needed it most. The pro from Manhattan, Kan., had cut off one of his own spinner baits Thursday afternoon and given it to his day-two co-angler, Todd Truax of Canton, Ohio, in an effort to help him make the cut and advance to Friday’s competition. The effective bait paid off for Truax, who had zeroed on day one but was gaining momentum at the close of the opening round of EverStart Championship action. The co-angler reeled in an impressive sack of bass weighing 8 pounds while fishing with Dillon – and his spinner bait – and ultimately advanced to today’s semifinal round in fourth place. In fact, Truax surpassed Dillon’s day-two catch weight by 3 ounces. Whether karma plays a hand in people’s destiny is open to debate, but Friday’s weigh-in – landing on Halloween, no less – seemed to suggest that Dillon was being treated to a sweet payback for his good deed. After a hard-fought weigh-in battle with Jim Tutt, Dillon eked out a spot in the top 10 by a mere 2 ounces. He was then forced to endure the mental anguish of sitting on the bubble while watching pros like two-time FLW Angler of the Year Clark Wendlandt and Wesley Strader, a local Tennessee favorite, weigh their fish. In the end, Dillon retained his seat in the upper echelon, allowing him to fish in tomorrow’s final round of the championship. “I’m so glad he made it,” Truax said after the weigh-in. To add to the strangeness of the circumstances, Dillon had also finished only one place ahead of Tutt to close out the opening round competition Thursday.
All in the family … The Baldwin family has certainly made a name for itself in FLW Outdoors tournaments. Co-angler Ken Baldwin of Needles, Calif., earned a $250 Snickers Big Bass Award on the first day of the EverStart Championship after landing a lunker that tipped the scales at 7 pounds, 3 ounces. That behemoth of a bass more than helped propel him into the semifinals, which concluded today with Baldwin ultimately placing 13th, before landing him a second check for $1,000 for having caught the largest bass of any angler over the first two days of the tournament. Apparently Ken passed a good deal of his angling prowess on to his son, Mike Baldwin, who won the 1999 All-American championship on the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wis. Both Baldwins fished the new Western Division of the EverStart Series in 2003, Ken as a co-angler and Mike as a pro. Ken said tonight, of his son, “I showed him how (to fish). He’s taught me a lot since.”
Quick numbers
22: Number of co-anglers to fish to fish in the semifinal round of championship action Friday, which served as the finals for the Co-angler Division.
22: Total pounds of fish caught by co-anglers Friday.
18: Total number of five-fish limits caught by all anglers as of day three.
Sound bites – the ones that got away
“Not a very good netter – my partner.”
– Co-angler Kohigashi Kazuhiro of Hyougo, Japan, explaining how he lost what would have been his second fish to weigh in Friday.
“I needed one more fish. That’s the story of my life.”
– Co-angler Ken Crumpler of Marianna, Fla., lamenting the elusive bass that could have helped make him the champion of his division. He placed third.
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