JASPER, Texas – Pro Alfred Williams of Jackson, Miss., won $20,000 cash and a new Ranger 519VS Comanche bass boat Saturday as the winner of the EverStart Series Central Division season opener on Sam Rayburn Reservoir. He landed the $61,900 prize package with five bass weighing 19 pounds, 13 ounces.
“I feel great,” said Williams, who caught pre-spawn bass Saturday fishing a lipless crank bait near creek bends. “I have been working toward this goal for a long time. I got my head on right and everything fell into place.”
Williams also earned a $3,000 bonus from Ranger boats for his participation in the Ranger Cup incentive program.
Rounding out the top five pros are Trey Morgan of Goldonna, La. (five bass, 13 pounds, 10 ounces, $10,000); David Junk of Quincy, Ill. (five bass, 12 pounds, 4 ounces, $9,000); David Truax of Beaumont, Texas (three bass, 9 pounds, 12 ounces, $8,000); and Eric Holt of Galena, Mo. (three bass, 7 pounds, 11 ounces, $7,500).
Dean Morgan of Port Arthur, Texas, claimed victory, $5,000 cash and a new Ranger boat in the Co-angler Division with a four-bass catching weighing 8 pounds, 1 ounce. He used a red Rat-L-Trap to claim the title.
“It was a high-pressure day,” said Morgan, who was fishing his first EverStart Series tournament. “I feel proud to win.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Brent Ausbrook of Olney, Ill. (four bass, 7 pounds, 15 ounces, $4,000); Mike Neal of Dexter, Kan. (three bass, 7 pounds, 6 ounces, $3,500); Larry Regina of South Bend, Ind. (three bass, 6 pounds, 13 ounces, $2,500); and Bill Rogers of Jasper, Texas (two bass, 4 pounds, 5 ounces, $2,000).
Anglers contended with cloudy skies and highs in the 40s for most of the week, but red Rat-L-Traps, a favorite Sam Rayburn lure, remained productive and several bass weighing more than 6 pounds were brought to the scales. The biggest bass of the tournament was caught Thursday by co-angler Jeary Wheeler of Batesville, Ark., who presented a 12-pound, 11-ounce largemouth for weigh-in and set a new EverStart Series record.
Fifty-six bass were caught Saturday, including three five-bass limits. One hundred percent of the bass were released alive.
A full field of 200 pros and 200 co-anglers took off from Twin Dikes Marina in Brookeland, Texas, Wednesday to kick off the $256,825 event. The field was cut from 200 to 20 anglers in each division following Thursday’s competition. Weights were cleared for Friday’s semifinal round, and the top 20 pros and 20 co-anglers competed for one of 10 slots in Saturday’s final round. Weights were again cleared for Saturday’s competition, and the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers competed for position and prize money.
The EverStart Series Central Division will visit Pickwick Lake in Florence, Ala., March 26-29 for its second regular-season event. Four divisions – Eastern, Central, Northern and Western – comprise the $3.88 million EverStart Series. Each division stages four regular-season tournaments leading up to the no-entry-fee $335,975 EverStart Series Championship, which will be held on Old Hickory Lake near Gallatin, Tenn., Oct. 29-Nov. 1.
To accommodate tremendous demand, EverStart Series Eastern, Northern and Central division fields have been expanded from 175 pros and 175 co-anglers to 200 pros and 200 co-anglers wherever facilities will allow. Payback in each of the expanded tournaments has also increased from $239,325 to $256,825. The extra cash is spread through the bottom three-quarters of the field, and 10 more places were added to the payout, giving 51st through 60th each $650 on the pro side and $250 on the co-angler side.
In EverStart Series competition, pros supply the boats, control boat movement and fish from the front of each boat against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back of each boat and compete against other co-anglers.
FLW Outdoors, the world’s leading marketer of competitive fishing, administers the EverStart Series. Other FLW Outdoors-sanctioned tournament trails include the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, the Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour and the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye League. FLW Outdoors will award as much as $20 million through 175 tournaments in 2003.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its six tournament trails. Wal-Mart has been the title sponsor of FLW Outdoors since 1997. For a complete list of FLW Outdoors sponsors and for more information about the premier products and services they offer, please visit FLWOutdoors.com.