Caporuscio claims co-angler crown at Havasu
LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. – You can say with all truthfulness that a Caporuscio led three days of the EverStart Series Western Division event at Lake Havasu. What you cannot say is that it was the same Caporuscio. While his brother, Dino, led the pros after the opening round, it was Mario Caporuscio who took home the trophy after winning the Co-angler Division and $4,500 with a final-round total of nine bass weighing 19 pounds, 10 ounces.
“I’m ecstatic; I’m all jacked up,” Mario Caporuscio said. “I’m so excited that I can’t even tell you. I’ve got to thank Mike because he worked really hard to get me my last three fish.”
Mike is Mike Goodwin, the Pro Division winner. He and Caporuscio fished together Saturday since they also both led the semifinal round Friday. After the co-angler caught a quick two bass in the first five minutes of fishing Saturday morning – including one on his first cast – the bite dried up for Caporuscio. Later, when Goodwin was happy with the limit he had for himself, he started turning the boat around so Caporuscio could work on a few spawning bass.
“Mike was pretty gracious,” Caporuscio said. “If it wasn’t going to be a big enough fish for him, he would let me have it.”
The co-angler winner had six bites and caught all six bass, which he culled out to a limit weighing 10 pounds, 2 ounces. He exclusively fished a drop-shot with a brown Roboworm, and he wanted to make sure to thank Dino for cluing him in on the winning bait presentation.
“Yeah, I’ve got to thank my brother for giving me the baits,” said Caporuscio, a 41-year-old grocery store owner from Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.
Rest of the top five
Second place in the Co-angler Division and $3,000 went to Charlie Crawford of Peoria, Ariz., for a final-round total of nine bass weighing 18 pounds, 11 ounces.
“I caught my big one this morning in the middle of a cove over some artificial structure,” Crawford said. “She was cruising and she just ate it.”
Co-angler Jeff Dean of Lake Havasu City finished third and collected $2,250 with a final-round total of eight bass weighing 16 pounds, 3 ounces.
Jason Caine of Las Vegas caught eight bass weighing 15 pounds, 15 ounces in the finals and finished in fourth place. He won $1,900.
Co-angler Gary Collins of Moorpark, Calif., the winner of the previous Western Division tourney at Lake Pleasant, finished fifth at Lake Havasu with 10 bass weighing 15 pounds, 4 ounces in the final round. He collected $1,700.
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top 10 co-angler finishers at EverStart Lake Havasu are Jason Billmaier of Las Vegas with a final-round weight of 12 pounds, 2 ounces (6th place, $1,400); Steve Schultz of Hooper, Utah, with 11-15 (7th, $1,300); Matt Lowery of El Cajon, Calif., with 11-1 (8th, $1,200); Kirk Beardsley of Huntington Beach, Calif., with 8-13 (9th, $1,100); and Tony Sarkis of Phoenix with 8-8 (10th, $1,000).
Coming up
The next EverStart Series event is a Central Division contest at Pickwick Lake near Florence, Ala., March 24-27.
The next Western Division tournament will be held at Clear Lake near Clearlake, Calif., April 14-17.
Link: