Penn leads field into final round
GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. – After weighing in five bass that registered 17 pounds, 3 ounces, Shawn Penn, 28, of Benton, Ky., leads 10 of the nation’s top professional anglers into Saturday’s final round of the EverStart Batteries Series tournament on Kentucky Lake.
Penn, who is fishing his third EverStart tournament, caught four largemouth bass and one smallmouth flipping a jig in shallow water on Kentucky Lake.
“Everything is changing,” Penn said. “They are pulling the water down, and there just isn’t that much left in the bushes. I had a great day, but tomorrow I can zero just as easy as I can catch 17 pounds.”
Finishing the round in second through fifth position in the Pro Division were Mike Hawkes of Sabinal, Texas, with five bass weighing 15-11; Koby Kreiger of Osceola, Ind., with five bass weighing 14-9; Keith Monson of Burgin, Ky., with five bass weighing 14-6; and Wes Thomas of Hanover, Ind., with five bass weighing 14-5.
In the Co-Angler Division, Lynn Wilson of Paducah, Ky., led the field with four bass weighing 8-13. Paul St. Onge of South Fulton, Tenn., finished the round in second with two bass weighing 6-13 followed by Gaylan Leek of Twin Lake, Mich., with three bass weighing 6-13; Hoot Gibson of Bryant, Ark., with two bass weighing 6-4; and Chuck Rounds of Benton, Ky., with two bass weighing 5-10.
“Yesterday, I was flipping bushes with 25-pound-test line and couldn’t catch a fish,” Wilson said. “Today, I was casting a tube jig on 8-pound line and catching smallmouths, so I’ve seen a little bit of everything this week.”
Overall, 117 bass weighing 302 pounds were caught Friday, including eight five-bass limits.
On Saturday, the top 10 anglers will start over and fish for one day to determine the victor. The winning pro will receive $10,000 and an Evinrude- or Johnson-powered Ranger bass boat. The winning co-angler will collect $6,000.
Saturday’s action begins at 7 a.m. at Moors Marina in Gilbertsville. The final weigh-in begins at 4 p.m. at the Wal-Mart in Benton, Ky.
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 priority entry in the 2001 FLW Tour.
The series’ title sponsor, EverStart Batteries, is the No. 1 retail selling automotive and marine battery brand in the world.