Clewiston, Fla. – Rick Gunter, 41, of Holly Hill, Fla., will lead 30 of the nation’s top professional bass anglers into Friday’s second round of competition at the EverStart Batteries Series tournament on Lake Okeechobee with a hefty two-day total of 10 bass weighing 43 pounds, 15 ounces.
Gunter caught all of his fish – including the day’s big bass, an 8-pound, 7-ounce largemouth that earned him $500 – using a Wal-Mart FLW Tour spinnerbait in thin patches of grass standing in open water.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” Gunter says about catching a five fish limit weighing 30 pounds, 5 ounces Thursday to secure a commanding lead over runner-up Roger Crafton of Boca Grande, Fla., who caught 29 pounds, 10 ounces over two days. “After I caught the big one this morning, I called my wife and told her that I wouldn’t be at work tomorrow.”
In the co-angler division, Jim Browning of Dawsonville, Ga., leads the field with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 26 pounds, 13 ounces. Big bass honors in the co-angler division and $300 went to Edward Miller of Fort Wayne, Ind., for a 7-pound, 12-ounce largemouth.
On Friday, anglers will start over and fish for one day to determine the top 10 pros and co-anglers who will compete in Saturday’s final round. The winning pro will receive $10,000 cash and an Evinrude powered Ranger bass boat. The winning co-angler will collect $6,000.
Competition begins at 7 a.m. each morning at Roland Martin’s Marina located at 920 East Del Monte Ave. in Clewiston. Friday’s weigh-in begins at 3 p.m. at Roland Martin’s Marina, and Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart Supercenter located on Highway 27 North in Clewiston at 3:30 p.m.
The three-year-old EverStart Series is comprised of two divisions, Eastern and Central, with four multi-day events per division. The top 75 pros and co-anglers from each division will advance to the year-end EverStart Invitational Challenge at Cypress Gardens, Fla., which features a purse of $360,000.
Over the course of the season, the EverStart Series awards anglers up to $1.7 million in cash and prizes. It also provides a pathway to the prestigious Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the richest tournament series in history. Winning anglers in the pro and co-angler divisions of each EverStart tournament, as well as the overall top 10 anglers, based on a system of points and pounds, receive automatic berths in the 2001 FLW Tour.