MANNING, S.C. – Pro Ricky Shumpert of Lexington caught a five-bass limit Friday weighing 18 pounds, 7 ounces to lead the semifinal round one of the $256,825 EverStart Series Eastern Division event on the Santee Cooper lakes near Manning. Only the top 10 pros and co-anglers advanced to fish Saturday’s final round, where the winning pro can earn as much as $61,900 in cash and prizes, and the winning co-angler can earn up to $35,000.
While Friday’s weights were not huge by Santee Cooper standards, pros managed to catch solid limits as they have all week. The weather has been stable for the area all week and the primary pattern has not changed. No pro jumped ahead of the pack Friday, and the title could be won by any of the pros in the top 10.
“The fishing was actually a quite a bit tougher today,” Shumpert said. “I really had to work hard today and cover a lot of water. I had two really good fish – one that was 7 pounds and another that was 5 pounds – that really helped me out. I threw a Senko and weightless trick worm all day in 2 to 4 feet of water.
“I was mostly fishing isolated trees and was looking for a few fish still on the beds. I saw several on the beds today that I didn’t have time to work on. Hopefully, those fish will bite tomorrow.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Greg Pugh of Cullman, Ala. (five bass, 16 pounds, 12 ounces); Steve Kennedy of Auburn, Ala. (five bass, 16 pounds, 7 ounces); Tony Couch of Buckhead, Ga. (five bass, 16 pounds, 6 ounce); and Kevin Vida of Clare, Mich. (five bass, 15 pounds, 6 ounces).
Jason Hampson of Cartersville, Ga., leads the Co-angler Division thanks to three bass weighing 9 pounds, 2 ounces.
“I missed a lot of fish today,” Hampson said. “I should have brought in as much as the leading pros. I was just flipping worms to cypress trees. That’s what I’ve done all week, and I’ll try to stick to that game plan tomorrow.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Marty Mixon of Goose Creek (two bass, 7 pounds, 15 ounces); Albert Pieper of Summerville (three bass, 6 pounds, 2 ounces); Brent Long of Sherrills Ford, N.C. (two bass, 5 pounds, 1 ounce); and Jeff Routch of Sumter (two bass, 4 pounds, 12 ounces).
Anglers caught 108 bass Friday, including 13 five-bass limits. More than 95 percent of the bass were weighed alive.
Anglers will take off Saturday morning at 7 from the John C. Land III Landing on Lake Marion in Summerton. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 481 W. Boyce St. in Manning beginning at 4 p.m. The community is encouraged to attend the takeoff and weigh-in.
The full field competed for two days to determine the top 20 pros and 20 co-anglers who advance to Friday’s semifinal round based on their two-day accumulated weight. Weights are cleared for the semifinal round, and anglers compete for one day to determine who advances to Saturday’s final round. Only the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers compete Saturday, and the winner is determined by the heaviest two-day weight.
The winning pro is guaranteed $10,000 cash plus an Evinrude- or Yamaha-powered Ranger 519 VS equipped with Garmin electronics, a Minn Kota trolling motor and EverStart Batteries. If the winner is the original owner of a Ranger boat, he will receive a $10,000 bonus from Ranger for a top pro award worth $61,900. If he is a qualifying participant in the Ranger Cup incentive program, Ranger will award another $3,000 cash (or $1,500 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant if not the winner), and Yamaha will match 50 percent of Ranger Cup winnings if the angler’s boat is powered by a Yamaha outboard. Garmin will award the winning pro $1,000 if he uses only Garmin electronics and at least one unit is a qualifying unit.
The winning co-angler is guaranteed $5,000 cash, and if he is a Ranger boat owner, Ranger will award him a new Ranger 519 VS for a total prize package worth $35,000. Co-anglers who make the final round of each regular-season EverStart Series event and wear an EverStart/Evinrude shirt and cap on stage are awarded points toward the EverStart Batteries and Evinrude Outboard Engines Co-angler Award. The co-angler receiving the most points by the end of the season receives a 2004 Evinrude 225HO Direct Injection outboard engine rigged on a Ranger boat equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor and EverStart batteries.
The EverStart Series features a pro/co-angler format with pros supplying the boats, fishing from the front deck against other pros and controlling boat movement. Co-anglers fish from the back deck and compete against other co-anglers. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points that determine angler standings. Two hundred points are awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 points for third, and so on.
Designed as a pathway to the $6.8 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the world’s most lucrative bass-tournament series, the EverStart Series features four divisions – Eastern, Central, Northern and Western – with four regular-season events each. The season culminates with the $335,975 EverStart Series Championship, which will be held Nov. 3-6 on Lake Cumberland near Somerset, Ky. The event will be broadcast to 65 million subscribers of the Outdoor Life Network on the “FLW Outdoors” television series. Central Division anglers who finish in the top 40 in the final points standings are eligible to compete in the championship.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors is the world’s leading marketer of competitive fishing. FLW Outdoors-sanctioned tournament trails are the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour and Wal-Mart RCL Walleye League. EverStart Batteries, the best-selling batteries in the world, are marketed exclusively by Wal-Mart stores.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its six tournament trails. Wal-Mart has been the title sponsor of FLW Outdoors since 1997.