EverStart points champs stand tall
Tight finishes, last-minute surges characterized 2002 standings races
As thrilling as some of the individual tournaments on the 2002 EverStart Series were – where the event is lower profile than its big brother Wal-Mart FLW Tour, but the competition is certainly no less fierce – the races for the year-end standings champions were equally competitive. The Eastern, Central and Northern divisions each played host to its own version of the Daytona 500 as anglers jockeyed for position atop the standings throughout the year and the victors made their respective pushes on the last lap.
Eastern Division: Fisher king
In the tightest standings race of the year, Stone Mountain, Georgia’s aptly named pro Pat Fisher set the precedent for this year’s rash of come-from-behind victories when he overtook Roger Crafton and Vince Ingle in the final Eastern Division tournament of 2002.
Fisher started the Eastern Division strong, finishing 15th at Lake Okeechobee and winning at Lake Eufaula.
He then notched a respectable 28th-place finish at Santee Cooper lakes, the third event of the year. But he fell behind Crafton, a Florida native, and Ingle, a Tennessee native, in the standings race. The wily Crafton, who is also an FLW Tour pro, and Ingle both put together their best years yet on the EverStart Series and were tied with a relatively sizable 19-point lead going into the final tourney. After three tournaments, Crafton and Ingle had 579 points while Fisher had 560.
At the fourth tournament, at Guntersville Lake, needing to make up 19 places on those two anglers, Fisher rose to the challenge. Both Crafton and Ingle left the door open when they missed the cut out of the opening round, finishing in 31st place and 44th place, respectively. Fisher proceeded to make the final round, took home eighth place and won his first pro standings title. With a final tally of 752 points, he edged out Crafton by a mere three points.
Fisher, a former tournament winner as a co-angler on the FLW Tour, was also the only 2002 EverStart Series pro standings champion also to record a tournament victory this season.
Central Division: Burnett does it again
Hot Springs, Ark., pro Wesley Burnett came into the 2002 season with his pistons pumping. Fueled by the 2001 FLW Tour season where he won the standings title as a co-angler, Burnett hopped into the pro seat in 2002 and rode it straight into the EverStart Central Division points title with a last-minute comeback.
Texas’ Jim Tutt came roaring out of the gate with a win and a third-place finish in the first two Central Division tournaments, Sam Rayburn Reservoir and Grand Lake, respectively. He dropped to an 18th-place finish at Kentucky Lake but still seemed a lock for the points title with only the Red River left to fish.
Meanwhile, Burnett did what he’s good at doing: fishing consistently – and consistently well. He hooked his way into two top-20 finishes in the first two events – 10th at Rayburn and 17th at Grand. Then he top-30ed at Kentucky with a 25th-place finish.
Tutt, who hadn’t missed an opening-round cut yet, had a sizable 581-552 lead over third-place Burnett heading into the Red River tourney. Also in the mix was Missouri’s Jim Eakins, who actually sat in second place with 560 points.
But the river works in mysterious ways on some anglers. Eakins fell to an 86th-place finish on the Red and dropped out of standings contention, finishing the year in sixth place. Burnett fished strong the first two days – including landing a 5-pound, 10-ounce big-bass winner on day two – and made the cut, while Tutt could only muster a 47th-place performance.
Needing to finish the tournament better than 18th place to take the title from Tutt, Burnett hit the throttle the last two days and landed his best finish of the year, sixth place, winning the Central Division points race with 747 points. An obviously disappointed Tutt finished the season with 735.
The ecstatic Burnett couldn’t believe his luck: “God has really blessed my socks off in this tournament because I really didn’t have a (fishing) plan. I didn’t have any place to go or anything to do.”
Northern Division: Veenstra’s comeback victory
Tom Monsoor practically owned the bass-heavy Northern Division in 2002. The Wisconsin pro never missed one cut in any of the first three tournaments – finishing eighth at the Mississippi River, sixth at Lake Champlain and ninth at Thousand Islands. Going into the final event at the Detroit River, it appeared that Monsoor, who won three consecutive standings titles in the Wal-Mart BFL Great Lakes Division from 1999 through 2001, was as sure a bet as they come.
Before the Detroit River, Monsoor held a 10-point lead over Pennsylvania’s Dave Lefebre and a 12-point lead over Marcel Veenstra of Newtown, Pa.
But once again the river ran dry for the standings leader in the last tournament of the year. Monsoor bonked on the opening day in Detroit, landing just two bass worth 3 pounds, 10 ounces. He recovered some on day two, catching a limit, but it wasn’t nearly enough on the limit-friendly waters of Lake Erie and the Detroit River. Monsoor finished the tourney in 91st place.
“I had a bad day. It was bound to happen,” Monsoor said. “There’s a lot of water to cover here. I went everywhere I could think of – Erie, St. Clair. … I’m going to quit smoking after this week. That’s it. I’m done. The pressure’s off.”
Meanwhile, Lefebre and Veenstra positioned themselves for a standings battle when both pros hovered near the cut line on day one. For Lefebre to win it, he needed to finish no worse than two places behind Veenstra. But Lefebre, who won at the Mississippi River, had his hopes dashed when he could only muster 37th place after two days and Veenstra made the cut and eventually finished the tournament in 15th place.
Veenstra won the points race with 754 points, while Lefebre finished second with 734 and Monsoor fell to third with 690.
“I’m happy because it’s been a good year,” Lefebre said, “but you’re right. I really wanted to win this and I didn’t. I think this means I need to learn how to close the deal.”
For Veenstra, a former computer consultant whose previous best EverStart standings finish was 33rd in the 1999 Eastern Division, the 2002 Northern Division points title was a tangible reward after a sometimes-rocky tournament road.
“It feels really good. It’s almost like a relief,” he said. “It shows that I am a consistent fisherman. Two years ago I made the (BFL) All-American. From that point on, it’s been a roller coaster trying to move up.”
Co-angler points champions
Eastern Division (tie): Ken Karoll, Lake Placid, Fla., and Jeff Taylor, Vernon, Ala., both with 726 points
Central Division: Bobby McMullin, Pevely, Mo., 733
Northern Division: Ted Will, Grand Rapids, Mich., 681 (Repeat champion. Will also won Northern Division standings in 2001.)
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