Pocola contractor vaults into first for final round
Lady Lucy Mize lands in third
WAGONER, Okla. – After weighing in five bass that registered 14 pounds, 13 ounces, Sam Newby, a 37-year-old general contractor from Pocola, Okla., will lead 10 of the nation’s top professional anglers into Saturday’s final round of the EverStart Batteries Series tournament on Fort Gibson Lake.
Newby caught his limit, including a 6-pound largemouth, by flipping around boathouses on a day that saw more clouds and wind than sun.
“Leading feels pretty good,” said Newby, who is fishing in his first full EverStart season. “But it will feel a lot better to be leading tomorrow.”
Finishing the round in second through fifth position in the Pro Division were Jim Criswell of Del Rio, Texas, with five bass weighing 12-13; Lucy Mize of Ben Lomond, Ark., with five bass weighing 12-2; David Templeton of Wagoner, Okla., with five bass weighing 11-1; and Taylor Hutchings of Phoenix with four bass weighing 10-15.
In the Co-Angler Division, Joe Glover, 32, of Guy, Ark., led the field with two bass weighing 6-3. Clay Campbell of Owasso, Okla., finished the round in second with three bass weighing 5-13 followed by Wayne Remington of Lincoln, Neb., with three bass weighing 5-8; Tyrone Phillips of Little Rock, Ark., with one bass weighing 5-5; and John Carlile of Broken Arrow, Okla., with two bass weighing 5-0.
On Saturday, 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 6 a.m. at Taylors Ferry North located about 8 miles southeast of Wagoner. The weigh-in begins at 4 p.m. at the Wal-Mart Supercenter located at 410 South Dewey in Wagoner.
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.