Quick Bites: EverStart Championship, Day 2

2001 EverStart Series Championship
Pickwick Lake, Florence, Ala.
Day two, Opening round

Flesh in first … Yesterday we told you about co-angler Renee Flesh and her Big Bass, a 5-pound, 6-ounce smallmouth that she said was fluke. Today she maintained her pace, landing three keepers for 5 pounds, 3 ounces and capturing the lead qualifying spot heading into the semifinal round. While the only female angler in either division to crack the top 10, her performance here is no fluke. She came on strong at the last Northern Division event at Lake Erie with a fifth-place finish and looks solid in the fall season. “I’ll fish with anybody,” she said. “I just love to fish.”

Derek Jeter, eat your heart out … When the New York Yankees’ shortstop hit the game-winning home run in game four of this year’s World Series, fans took to calling him “Mr. November.” Sorry, Derek, that title already belongs to EverStart angler Darrel Robertson. Today the Jay Okla., native captured the Pro Division lead heading into the EverStart Series Championship semifinal round for the second year in a row. Last year at the Challenge held at Cypress Gardens in November, he led the big-bass tourney after two days and eventually finished in third place. The year before that, in November of 1999, Robertson took home the largest payout ever in professional bass fishing, $600,000, when he won the Ranger M1 Millennium tournament, also at Cypress Gardens.

Robertson took the lead by catching the day’s only full five-fish stringer in either division. He led second-place pro Joe Balog of Independence, Ohio, by 2 pounds, 9 ounces and third-place Mark Mauldin of Cleveland, Tenn., by a full 6 pounds. Normally, that kind of weight differential among the top three wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. But at this extremely tough tournament where most anglers caught very few fish, the weights were all bunched up below Robertson. The pro cut weight fell to a mere 13 pounds, 8 ounces. Robertson crushed that by almost 11 pounds, which makes his opening-round performance at the 2001 EverStart Series Championship one to remember.

For the record … Never before has the entire field of anglers only weighed in just one full five-bass stringer in one day of EverStart competition. It’s not that the bass aren’t here, they just aren’t biting. “I had a bunch of swirls this morning,” said Gerald Beck, a Lexington, N.C., pro who is known for the kind of crankbait fishing that tends to be successful at Pickwick Lake. “They just weren’t taking it.”

Lucky bay log for Balog … Joe Balog held up today, catching four bass weighing 9 pounds, 2 ounces for a two-day total of nine bass weighing 22-11 and capturing second place. One of his bigger fish was a bit of an accident, he admits. After his lure became hung up on a log, Balog trolled up to retrieve it. When he popped it loose, a largemouth jumped on the bait and he reeled it in not more than 10 feet from the boat. “That one was a gift,” he said.

Grosse out, almost … Day-one pro leader Richard Grosse of Hebron, Ohio, said Wednesday that he felt lucky even to be at the championship, much less in the lead. Well, he got even luckier today when he caught no keeper bass and still qualified for the semifinals in the final spot by virtue of his 13-pound, 8-ounce, day-one weight. He in fact tied 11th-place Jeff Stevens of Terre Haute, Ind., who also had 13-8, but slid up into 10th place due to a tiebreaker. “I gave it a little too much today,” Grosse said. “I fished really hard. I just wasn’t where the fish are. … By the way, could you say in there that I really appreciate my wife?” Okay, Mrs. Grosse, he appreciates you. And he won’t be home for at least another day because he has some more fishing to do.

Quick Number

312.85: Amount, in dollars and cents, that each pound of 15th-place pro Tom Monsoor‘s catch weight was worth. In this low-fish, high-money event, Monsoor caught just 11-pounds, 3-ounces of bass in the opening-round and made $3,500.

Sound Bite

“It’s going to take a mule to pull this smile off of my face.”
– Co-angler Claude Broomes, who qualified for the semifinals in 10th place with 5 pounds, 9 ounces after posting a zero on day one. Not coincidentally, he was paired with Darrel Robertson on day two.

Quick Links, Day 2:

Photos
Results
Tomorrow’s pairings
Robertson rolls into semifinals
Press release