GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. – Pro Phillip Nunnelley of Cullman caught a two-day total of 10 bass that weighed 40 pounds, 1 ounce to lead the four-day, $256,825 EverStart Series Eastern Division event on Alabama’s Guntersville Lake. Nunnelley landed five bass weighing 19 pounds, 4 ounces Thursday to lead the opening round and put him in the hunt for a top pro award worth $61,900 in cash and prizes, including a fully-rigged Ranger 519VS Comanche.
After dealing with thunder, lightning, hail and rain Wednesday, anglers were greeted with calmer conditions Thursday on Guntersville Lake, despite forecasted thunderstorms. Some anglers preferred the morning’s overcast skies while others needed the intermittent sunshine to maximize their pattern. Nunnelley, who says his pattern needs the sunshine, caught his bass Thursday in Guntersville’s grassy cover.
“I’ve got a different pattern going than a lot of people do,” said Nunnelley, who has two Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League wins to his credit, including a Choo Choo Division victory on Guntersville. “It’s grass, of course, and sunshine’s important. It was cloudy early, and then the sun broke out and the fish started feeding. It’s a pretty good pattern; even if I don’t have sunshine I feel pretty good about it because it bit all right (Wednesday) when we had those terrible thunderstorms. I had a lot of bites, and this feels really great.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Travis Adams of Danielsville, Ga. (10 bass, 36 pounds); David Gray of Section (10 bass, 36 pounds); Fujifilm pro Wesley Strader of Spring City, Tenn. (10 bass, 35 pounds, 14 ounces); and Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn. (10 bass, 34 pounds, 10 ounces).
A.K. Boatright of Cleveland, Ala., emerged as opening-round leader in the Co-angler Division thanks to a two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 30 pounds, 14 ounces. He caught five bass Thursday that weighed 17 pounds, 2 ounces to propel him past second-place contender and day-one leader Richard Angel of Surf City, N.C., by 2 pounds, 14 ounces. He caught his bass Thursday flipping a top-water in the grass.
“I’ve never done quite this well in these bigger events,” said Boatright, who prefers the cloudy conditions for his early-morning top-water bite. “It’s kind of on my home lake, so I’ll have quite a good audience, especially if I make the top 10. As for the fishing, (Thursday) was pretty normal after the `hurricanado’ (Wednesday). It got rough here at the launch, and the tournament staff did a great job getting us out of the water and safe. They need to be commended for that.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Angel (nine bass, 28 pounds); David Parks of Decatur (seven bass, 26 pounds, 5 ounces); Ernest Diaz of Fayetteville, Ga. (10 bass, 25 pounds, 2 ounces); and Christopher Fabrizio of Kernersville, N.C. (nine bass, 24 pounds, 13 ounces).
Jeff Viverette of Frederick, Md., claimed big-bass honors in the Pro Division for a 7-pound, 1-ounce bass that earned him $750. Kenny Botts of Tompkinsville, Ky., earned $250 as the co-angler big-bass winner thanks to a 6-pound, 2-ounce bass.
A total of 938 bass were caught Thursday, including 78 five-bass limits.
Friday and Saturday’s takeoff will be at 6 a.m. from the Guntersville State Park Pier in Guntersville. The semifinal- and final-round weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 11697 U.S. Highway 431 in Guntersville beginning at 4 p.m.
Weights are cleared for Friday’s competition, and the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers will advance to Saturday’s final round based on Friday’s total weight. Weights are again cleared for Saturday’s competition, and anglers compete for the heaviest one-day weight.
The winning pro will take home a guaranteed cash award of $10,000 plus a new Ranger 519VS Comanche equipped with Garmin electronics and powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard. If the winner is the original owner of a Ranger boat, he will receive an additional $10,000 cash bonus from Ranger for a total of $61,900 in cash and prizes. Ranger will also award an additional $3,000 to the winner if he is a Ranger Cup participant, and Garmin will award $1,000 to the winner if his boat is equipped with a fixed-mount Garmin Fishfinder or combination GPS/Sounder.
The winning co-angler is guaranteed $5,000 cash. If the winning co-angler is a registered Ranger owner, he will also receive a new Ranger 519VS Comanche for a total of $27,800 in cash and prizes.
Four divisions – Eastern, Central, Northern and Western – comprise the 2003 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.
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 explore FLWOutdoors.com.
FLW Outdoors is named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood.