EverStart Series heads to Santee Cooper with $185,000 tourney

GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. – The newly expanded EverStart Series is heading to Lake Santee Cooper near Manning, S.C., for the third $185,000 Eastern Division tournament of the 2001 season.

Three hundred and thirty anglers representing 22 states and Canada will be competing as Eastern Division points leader Mark Rogers of Naples, Fla., looks to extend his two-point lead over James Nuckols Jr. of Rockwood, Tenn., in the season’s points race. Rogers has 394 points to Nuckols’ 392 points. The leaders are followed closely, however, by Roger Crafton of Boca Grande, Fla., with 390 points and Mark Shepard of Labelle, Fla., with 389 points. A win on Lake Eufaula is worth 200 points.

“This is shaping up to be a tightly contested season in the Eastern Division,” said Jerry Stakely, EverStart Series tournament director. “We are already midway through the season, and it’s still anyone’s ballgame.”

Anglers will compete on Lake Santee Cooper for four days starting March 28. The full field of 165 pros and 165 co-anglers will compete for two days during the opening round. After the opening round, the field will be cut to the top 30 pros and top 30 co-anglers. These competitors will start from zero and compete for one day in the semifinal round to determine the top 10 anglers in each division who will advance to the final round. Anglers will again start from zero for the final day of competition, and the winner of each division will be determined by the weight of that day’s catch. The winning pro will receive $15,000 and a Ranger boat. The winning co-angler will receive $6,000.

EverStart Series tournament winners and the top 50 pros and top 50 co-anglers from the Eastern, Northern and Central divisions will earn a spot in the EverStart Series Championship Nov. 7-10 on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Ala. There, the winning pro will receive a Ranger boat and $25,000 cash. The top co-angler will win a Ranger boat and $10,000 cash. The top 10 anglers from each division will also qualify to compete in the 2002 Wal-Mart FLW Tour where they could win up to $250,000 in a single event.

To accommodate the growing demand for high-profile, big-money bass tournaments, the EverStart Series added a Northern Division to its 2001 schedule. The series also increased the value of each regular season purse by nearly $20,000 and added a no-entry-fee championship that will award anglers $325,000. More than $2.5 million will be award to bass fishing enthusiasts this season through the EverStart Series’ Eastern, Central and Northern Divisions. Each division features four events. The 4-year-old EverStart Series also provides a pathway to the $4.4 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour – bass fishing’s most lucrative tournament series.

The John C. Land III Boating and Sportfishing Facility in Summerton, S.C., is the site of each day’s 6:30 a.m. takeoff on Lake Santee Cooper March 28-31. Weigh-ins for the first three days of competition will also be held at the facility starting at 2:30 p.m. each day. The final weigh-in on Saturday, March 31 will be held at the Wal-Mart located at 481 West Boyce Street in Manning at 3:30 p.m.

After Lake Santee Cooper, Kerr Lake near Henderson, N.C., will be the only remaining Eastern Division tournament. Competition on Kerr Lake will run May 30-June 2.

For more information about the EverStart Series, call (270) 362-4880. For more information about EverStart Batteries, visit www.everstartbatteries.com.

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