NATCHITOCHES, La. – In a classic duel between two veteran anglers, Little Rock, Ark.’s Scott Rook edged out tournament heavyweight Dan Morehead of Paducah, Ky., Saturday at the four-day, $256,825 EverStart Series Central Division event on the Red River. Both pros caught a two-day total of 10 bass that weighed 27 pounds, but Rook had the tie-breaking advantage of a higher ranking after the tournament’s opening round. Rook ended day two in the No. 2 position and Morehead trailed him in fourth place, stats that ultimately determined the tournament winner.
For the win, Rook earned $10,000 cash plus an Evinrude- or Yamaha-powered Ranger 519 VS equipped with Garmin electronics, a Minn Kota trolling motor and EverStart Batteries. Because he is the original owner of a Ranger boat, he received an additional $10,000 bonus from Ranger Boats, and as the highest-finishing participant in the Ranger Cup incentive program, he also claimed a $3,000 bonus from Ranger.
Rook took a gamble and locked through to his sweet spot some 60 miles away from the launch site and it paid off in a big way. To claim the win – his first in any FLW Outdoors-sanctioned event – he had to overcome a tough Red River bite and four days of less-than-desirable weather conditions, including rain and intermittent thunderstorms.
“I made a big run and tried to get away from the crowd each day,” said Rook, a veteran of the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League Arkie Division. “I locked twice and ran about 60 miles one way each day to a backwater area in Pool 5. I was fishing standing timber, and the fish were suspended in the trees about 3 or 4 feet deep. The first three days I was throwing a white square-bill crankbait and trying to find trees that had a limb coming off or something.”
Due to rising water levels and continuing rain, Rook opted to change tactics Friday and throw a buzzbait into some shallow grass. “I caught a nice one on a 3/8-ounce black buzzbait, and about 10 casts later I caught one that weighed about 4 1/2 pounds,” he said. “I thought (Morehead) had beaten me by an ounce. I was on the phone with my wife when he came walking over and said, `Man, you won; we tied.’ I got so excited that I hung up on my wife.” Morehead, the 2003 Wal-Mart FLW Tour Angler of the Year, earned $10,000 for his runner-up finish.
Finishing third was Toby Hartsell of Livingston, Texas, with nine bass that weighed 25 pounds, 2 ounces worth $9,000. In fourth was Kenneth Chapman of Woodlawn, Tenn., with 10 bass weighing 24 pounds, 15 ounces that earned him $8,000, and finishing in the fifth spot was Slade Dearman of Sam Rayburn, Texas, with an eight-bass catch that weighed 23 pounds, 8 ounces worth $7,500.
Co-angler Bill Gift of Alix, Ark., entered the tournament’s final day in the No. 6 position and secured the co-angler victory with a two-day catch of seven bass that weighed 16 pounds. Gift is enjoying a resurgence in his EverStart Series career after taking a four-year hiatus; this is his second top-three finish of the season. He fished with Rook today and earned $5,000 cash for the win.
“We made a long run through the miserable rain, and we got up there and were idling in coves and stuff, and (Rook) said, `You know, this water’s coming up; I might use a buzzbait,'” Gift said. “He caught one right off the bat and I said, `I’m not a dummy; I think I’ve got one of those.’ I tied one on myself and caught a 4-pounder, and I think I had a limit before he did. I would have liked to have had nicer weather, but I think the weather probably helped our bite.”
Gift’s first EverStart Series win came as no surprise – to him, at least. “I came here expecting this as much as you can,” he said. “I told everybody at home that I was going to come down here and win this. I had a lot of ideas, and I was here last fall for a BFL regional. This water’s similar to what I fish at home.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Terry Retalic of Fayetteville, Ark. (eight bass, 15 pounds, 8 ounces, $4,000); Jay Lamb of Kansas City, Mo. (nine bass, 12 pounds, 9 ounces, $3,500); Denny Wilkins of Lubbock, Texas (six bass, 11 pounds, 14 ounces, $2,500); and Steve Graf of Natchitoches (nine bass, 11 pounds, $2,000).
The EverStart Series Central Division presented by Schick Quattro will wrap up its regular season June 2-5 with an event on Kentucky Lake in Gilbertsville, Ky.
The tournament began Wednesday from the Grand Encore launching facility in Natchitoches with 200 pros and 200 co-anglers fishing for two days to determine the 20-angler semifinal-round field based on two-day accumulated weights. Weights were cleared for Friday’s semifinal round, and anglers competed that day for one of 10 slots in Saturday’s final round. Weights carried over Saturday, and the pro and co-angler winners were determined by the heaviest two-day weights.
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.