SALISBURY, NC., (August 1, 1999) Randy File of Salisbury, North Carolina, took first place, $3461, plus 50 CITGO Challenge Points for winning the Red Man Carolina Division qualifier held Sunday on High Rock Lake. File brought in five bass weighing 15 pounds, 4 ounces to top a field of 228 anglers competing for $12,970.
File fished the Second creek area using a 10 1/2 Zoom Old Monster lure. He fished with a draging worm
Texas rig pattern to catch his fish. Second place and $1,731 went to Steve Sink of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for five bass weighing 14 pounds, 1 ounce. Sink fished in the main lake. He fished around stumps and rocks using worm jig and Carolina rigs.
Rounding out the top positions were: (3) Gary Cline, Lexington, NC, four bass, 14-0, $1,016. (4) Mitch Drew, Gold Hill, NC, five bass, 13-10, $651. (5) Doug Young, Salisbury, NC, five bass, 13-9, $617.
Steven Lake of Winston-Salem, NC, won the Abu Garcia Big Bass Award of $1,000 for a 6 pound 1 ounce bass. Mike Miller of High Point, NC, is leading the Carolina Division’s Ranger Millennium big bass race for the year with a bass weighing 8 pounds, 4 ounces. The Ranger boat owner who catches the largest bass in each Red Man division over the course of the season, will qualify to enter the Ranger M1 Millennium tournament. C. Jacobs of Charleston, SC, won the Berkley Powerbait award – a package of baits valued at $325 – for the highest weight caught on Powerbait or Frenzy lures with 10 pounds, 10 ounces.
There they will compete against the top 30 fishermen from three other divisions for a Dream Rig consisting of a Chevy truck and a full-rigged Ranger bass boat powered by an Evinrude or Johnson outboard (only two divisions compete in the Western Regional for a fully-rigged Ranger bass boat) and a spot in the Red Man All-American in Hot Springs, Arkansas, May 8-13, 2000, where the winner will receive $100,000.
The rookie advancing farthest along the Red Man Trail will win the Old Milwaukee NA Rookie-of-the-Year Award.
All Red Man tournaments are catch and release events. Operation Bass historically maintains a 98 percent live release rate throughout the tournament season.
Sponsors of the 1999 Red Man Tournament Trail include: Evinrude Outboards, Evinrude Electrics, CITGO Petroleum, Ranger Boats, Humminbird Fishfinders, Stren Fishing Lines, Abu Garcia Rods and Reels, Chevy Trucks, ENERGIZER Marine Batteries, Old Milwaukee NA, Black & Decker, David Seeds, Coleman Products, Land O Lakes, BC Powder, Eveready, Wheaties, Chex Mix, Hamburger Helper, Wrangler, US Bank-VISA, Powerbait, and Frenzy.