WOODBRIDGE, Va. – More clouds greeted EverStart Series finalists as they took for the final day of Northeast Division competition at the Potomac River Saturday morning, but the sun is threatening to return and heat things up.
Yesterday’s clouds, wind and rain threw a good portion of the field off their game plans, changing a bass bite that had seen sun and calm the first two days. The reemergence of nicer weather could bring the bite back in a big way, however, as the pros gun for that $10,000-plus-a-boat prize package and the co-anglers go for a $5,000 top prize.
The battle to watch today will be between local angler Michael Hall and Scott Dameron of West Virginia, who are atop the pro leaderboard. Hall leads Dameron by a pound and has already led two days of this tournament.
Don’t forget about Wal-Mart FLW Tour pro J.T. Kenney, either, who grew up fishing the Potomac and is just over 3 pounds behind the leader in third place. After several near-misses at other lakes in recent years, Kenney is gunning for his first EverStart win on his home waters.
Derek Moyer, who fished with Hall Friday, seemingly has a comfortable, nearly 2-pound lead on the co-angler field. He is paired with Hall again Saturday.
Friday’s weights carry over to Saturday, and each division’s winner will be determined by two-day combined weight. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at 4 p.m. Eastern time at the Wal-Mart store located at 17041 Jefferson Davis Hwy. in Dumfries, Va. The onsite Fujifilm trout pond for kids opens at 2:30 p.m.
The winning pro earns an Evinrude- or Yamaha-powered Ranger 519VX equipped with Garmin electronics, a Minn Kota trolling motor and EverStart batteries plus $10,000 cash. If the winner is the original owner of a Ranger boat that is used during the tournament, the winner also receives a $10,000 bonus from Ranger for a top pro award of $60,000. If the winning pro is a Ranger Cup participant, 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, thus boosting potential winnings for the top pro to $65,500.
The winning co-angler receives $5,000 cash, and if the winner is a Ranger boat owner, Ranger will award a new Ranger 519VX for a total prize package worth $35,000.
Saturday’s conditions:
Sunrise: 6:28 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 74 degrees
Expected high temperature: 94 degrees
Water temperature: 83-89 degrees
Wind: SW 6 mph
Maximum humidity: 68 percent
Day’s outlook: partly cloudy