Saving the best for last
Big catches expected as EverStart regular season wraps up on mighty Champlain
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – Word is that bass fishing on Lake Champlain is best in the fall. If that holds true, this week’s EverStart Series season-ender should be another Northern Division blockbuster.
While the fall season is creeping up on the Champlain area of upstate New York and Vermont with trees just itching to turn colors, anglers might see more summer-like conditions this week. Calm, bluebird skies and temperatures approaching 70 degrees quickly warmed the marina at Mooney Bay where 191 boats took off at 7 a.m. Wednesday. It made for a beautiful start to the year’s last Northern Division event and will certainly make for some pleasant fishing on the big, scenic lake, as well.
Of course, making this week’s event even more agreeable to the anglers is the fishery itself, which contains copious numbers of bass and is a favorite of many tour pros. It will be hard to top the record catches that came out of Lake Erie in Northern Division competition last month, but if any lake can do it, Lake Champlain can. The Wal-Mart FLW Tour set total weight records at its last stop here in June.
Since this is the fourth and final regular-season event of the Northern Division, anglers will be jostling for position in the yearly standings in an effort to gain a berth into the championship. Currently in first place for the pros with 535 points is Bob Izumi of Milton, Ontario, who stands a chance to become the first Canadian to win a standings title on the EverStart Series. He has his hands full, however, with the likes of Charlie Hartley of Grove City, Ohio, just three points behind him. Hartley finished ninth in June’s FLW competition here, so he likely knows where some good fish are.
Not only that – at Champlain, where one fish here or there could spell the difference between first and 100th place – the points title could be contested by any number of pros atop the standings. Heavy hitters like Wesley Strader, Jim Moynagh, Art Ferguson, Steve Clapper and Dave Lefebre are still lurking in the top 10.
Scot Keefe of Hinesburg, Vt., leads the co-angler standings with 534 points. He is followed closely by Larry Evans of South Point, Ohio, with 531 points.
Wednesday’s weigh-in begins at 2:30 p.m. at Mooney Bay Marina, located at 15 Mooney Bay in Plattsburgh.
Tournament logistics
The full field will compete for two days to determine the top 20 pros and 20 co-anglers who advance to Friday’s semifinal round based on their two-day accumulated weight. Weights are cleared for the semifinal round, and anglers compete for one day to determine who advances to Saturday’s final round. Only the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers compete Saturday, and the winner is determined by the heaviest two-day weight.
The winning pro is guaranteed $10,000 cash plus an Evinrude- or Yamaha-powered Ranger 519 VS equipped with Garmin electronics, a Minn Kota trolling motor and EverStart batteries. If the winner is the original owner of a Ranger boat, he will receive a $10,000 bonus from Ranger for a top pro award worth $61,900. If he is a qualifying participant in the Ranger Cup incentive program, Ranger will award another $3,000 cash (or $1,500 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant if not the winner), and Yamaha will match 50 percent of Ranger Cup winnings if the angler’s boat is powered by a Yamaha outboard. Garmin will award the winning pro $1,000 if he uses only Garmin electronics and at least one unit is a qualifying unit.
The winning co-angler is guaranteed $5,000 cash, and if he is a Ranger boat owner, Ranger will award him a new Ranger 519 VS for a total prize package worth $35,000. Co-anglers who make the final round of each regular-season EverStart Series event and wear an EverStart/Evinrude shirt and cap on stage are awarded points toward the EverStart Batteries and Evinrude Outboard Engines Co-angler Award. The co-angler receiving the most points by the end of the season receives a 2004 Evinrude 225HO Direct Injection outboard engine rigged on a Ranger boat equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor and EverStart batteries that will be presented at the EverStart Series Championship.
Wednesday’s conditions:
Sunrise: 6:42 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 67 degrees
Expected high temperature: 76 degrees
Wind: from the west-northwest at 11 mph
Maximum humidity: 64 percent
Day’s outlook: mostly sunny
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