Evers Overtakes Lane for Elimination Round Win on Cocodrie Complex
VIDALIA, Louisiana – With the effects of an early-fall storm system still lingering in the lower Mississippi River Valley as the first period of Elimination Round 3 at the Lucas Oil MLF Challenge Cup came to an end, it was no surprise to Nitro pro Edwin Evers that he hadn’t identified a solid pattern through the first 2 ½ hours of competition.
A small front had moved through the area two days prior, dropping the daytime highs by nearly 20 degrees, scattering rain throughout the valley and influencing the temperature and clarity of the competition waters of the Black River-Cocodrie Lake Complex near Monterey, Louisiana.
It had taken Evers – an 11-time B.A.S.S. winner and the 2013 Challenge Cup Champion – just over an hour to land his first scorable largemouth, and he ended Period 1 with only four of the 41 fish recorded on SCORETRACKER for the period.
“I needed to have good event here. This was the kind of day I prayed for.”
Defending MLF World Champion Bobby Lane, meanwhile, was putting on a fish-catching clinic.
“It’s the time of year when the fish really like to get grouped up,” Lane said. “If you can find some, I think you can come back through an area and pitch different baits and catch different fish.”
Lane recorded five of the first seven scorable fish of the round and eventually piled up 10 fish for 18-9 in the first period cranking a chartreuse/black back Duel Hardcore XX Crank 1+, sending him into Period 2 with a healthy cushion over the rest of the nine-man field.
That all changed dramatically in the second period, though.
While Lane’s cranking bite evaporated, Evers rang up six fish for 11 pounds in the second half of the period to take the lead, most of it on a chartreuse/black back Megabass S-Crank 1.2 squarebill.
Lane went fishless through the second period and over half of Period 3, and then briefly took the lead with two quick 2-plus-pounders. Evers finally took over the lead for good when he hooked his biggest fish of the day (a 3-4) with 30 minutes of fishing time remaining, giving him a final total of 24-12 on 14 fish.
“I had a horrible event in the first (Cup event) up in Alpena, I got stubborn and tried to make fish bite, finished dead last,” Evers says. “To make that World Championship, I needed to have good event here. This was the kind of day I prayed for.”
Lane finished second with 22-15, Kevin VanDam third with 19-7. Keith Poche (16-14), Brent Ehrler (15-10) and Boyd Duckett (15-3) also advanced to Sudden Death.