It’s Rounds by 8 pounds
Local angler takes second EverStart Kentucky Lake co-angler title by a near 8-pound margin
BENTON, Ky. – They say home is where the heart is, and for Chuck Rounds, it doesn’t get any sweeter than winning a tournament on your home lake with a homemade jig. The Benton native did just that Saturday, taking home the EverStart Series Kentucky Lake co-angler title with a two-day total weight of 30 pounds, 14 ounces.
“I might have had a little bit of an advantage,” Rounds said. “This little tournament was a weight-fest.”
This week’s tournament marked the end of the Central Division season, and Rounds finished the year ranked second in co-angler points standings. It was his first season to fish all four events on the schedule, and the effort paid off.
The 2000 EverStart Kentucky Lake champion returned to winning form with a 16-pound catch on day four that gave him a win by nearly 8 pounds. No doubt his local knowledge didn’t hurt, as he figured out that the bottom-dwelling bass had moved up shallower – an annual move that left many anglers confused on the final day.
“They do it every year about this time,” he said. “They stay deep for a little while and just move up. It makes it a lot easier – they’re coming up to feed. They’re hungry.”
Rounds surmised during practice that the bass were responding well to a jig, and luckily for him, he had just the ticket – a black/blue homemade production that earned him $5,000 as the co-angler champion.
“I’ve been catching fish for about three weeks off a jig,” he said. “They’ve been about 20 to 25 feet deep, but the bigger fish are about 8 to 10 feet deep.”
Rounds has scored 11 top-10 finishes – and two wins – in FLW Outdoors events on Kentucky-Barkley since 2000.
Taylor takes second
Brad Taylor of Catlettsburg took second place in his first-ever Central Division event with a two-day total of 22 pounds, 15 ounces that earned him $4,000.
Taylor, who has fished the EverStart Northern Division in years past, posted near-identical weights on days three and four, catching 11-9 Friday and 11-6 Saturday. He credits his high finish to his pro partners – Rodney Tidwell on day four, Billy Schroeder on day three, Tim Griggs on day two and Roger Walters on day one.
“I had excellent partners every day,” he said. “They were angler-friendly, doing everything they could to make sure the fishing was as good for me as it could possibly be.”
And indeed it was good for Taylor this week. He finished the opening round in the No. 3 spot and was eighth on day three.
“My partners had the lake scoped out,” Taylor said. “The hardest part of this business is not catching fish but finding them, and these guys could find them.”
Taylor caught his bass this week Carolina-rigging a green pumpkin Brush Hog and also found success on a 10-inch worm.
This was Taylor’s second EverStart Series top-10 performance.
Barnett Senkos to third
Central Division veteran Emmet Barnett of Waldron, Ark., earned his second career EverStart top-10 with a third-place performance on Kentucky Lake. According to Barnett, his top-10 berth is due in large part to the gracious actions of Texas pro Jim Tutt, Barnett’s day-two partner.
“On the second day, with five minutes left to fish, Jim gave me his drop-shot rod,” Barnett said. “I made one cast and caught my limit fish, and that made the cut for me. Jim caught four fish and handed that rod to me.”
Barnett caught 10 pounds, 12 ounces on the final day for a two-day total weight of 22 pounds, 7 ounces that earned him $3,480, and for that accomplishment, he owes the Senko.
“I caught 14 of the last 15 fish on a Senko,” he said. “I just fished really slowly. We’d have a time when we’d get five or six, and then it would be an hour or two of dead time.”
The first day, Barnett fished with No. 5 pro William Davis and took advantage of a hot crankbait bite. The next day, he switched to a Senko and took it all the way to the finals.
“Everybody I fished with was fishing ledges,” he said. “The key was fishing slowly. I caught four or five never moving it.”
Herald takes fourth, makes championship
Gilbert Herald of Pittsburg, Texas, caught a two-day total of 22 pounds, 3 ounces to earn $2,480 as the fourth-place co-angler. He also finished the season ranked 21st in points, meaning he’s qualified for the 2005 EverStart Series Championship.
Herald began his EverStart season on Sam Rayburn, where he finished fifth. At the time, he hadn’t signed up to fish the other Central Division events, but after that first top-10 finish, he knew he wanted to try for the championship.
“I fished the first tournament for fun,” he said. “I was on the waiting list for Kentucky Lake. I had plenty of opportunities today, and I learned some serious lessons – a huge amount.”
Herald fished with pro winner Terry Bolton on day four.
Mize lands in fifth
Melinda Mize of Ben Lomond, Ark., was another waiting-list success, taking fifth place with a two-day total of 22 pounds, 2 ounces that earned her $1,980.
The 22-year-old angler had only fished one other EverStart event in her career, and she traveled to Kentucky Lake to support her brother, Matthew, who was then in the running to qualify for the 2006 FLW Tour. Instead, the trip turned into her first top-10.
“This is awesome,” she said. “If you ever have the chance to do it, do it. I came up this week just to practice with my brother, and it was just an added bonus getting in (the tournament).”
Best of the rest
Rounding out the top six co-anglers on Kentucky Lake:
6th: Stetson Blaylock, Benton, Ark., 21-5, $1,880
7th: David Hargett of Sherwood, Ark., 21-3, $1,780
8th: Keith Newsom of Memphis, Tenn., 18-13, $1,680
9th: Mark King of Gurdon, Ark., 17-2, $1,580
10th: Rick Turner of Tyler, Texas, 9-2, $1,480
King co-angler points champ
No. 9 co-angler finisher Mark King earned 760 points in the Central Division this season to rank No. 1 in year-end standings. King never finished lower than 16th in the four Central Division events of 2005, taking that finish at the season opener on Sam Rayburn and following that up with a 15th-place showing on the Columbus Pool the next month. He then scored two consecutive top-10 finishes to round out the season, taking fourth place on Lake of the Ozarks before finishing ninth on Kentucky Lake.
What’s next
The top 40 co-anglers in the year-end EverStart Central Division points standings will receive an automatic invite to the 2005 EverStart Series Championship, slated to take place on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Ala., Nov. 2-5. The total purse for that event is $1 million.