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Top 10 pros, co-anglers get fresh start at Pickwick in EverStart Championship
FLORENCE, Ala. – The scoreboards have been scrubbed clean, and all deficits have been erased. The top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers who survived the elimination round over the last two days all got a clean slate Friday morning.
The clean slate doesn’t do much for tournament leader Jonathan Newton of Rogersville, Ala.,
and second-place pro Jerry Green of Justiceburg, Texas, who were only separated by an ounce yesterday.
But it breathes new life into pros like Gabe Bolivar of Ramona, Calif., and Roy Hawk of Salt Lake City, who both posted 14-pound-plus limits yesterday and seem to have figured something out.
Newton and Green will likely still be running this morning as their competitors make their first casts. Both anglers have chosen to make long runs – Newton to Wheeler Lake and Green to Bay Springs Lake – while the other three pros in the top five are fishing on Pickwick.
One pro to watch today is Dave Lefebre of Union City, Pa. Lefebre is fishing deep-water areas in the midsection of Pickwick Lake. Lefebre actually laid off his best spots yesterday and spent most of the day hunting new water.
Lefebre says the way he is fishing – in deep current with heavy jigs – reminds him more of a summer pattern than a fall pattern. Considering that temperatures in the Shoals area of Alabama will soar to near 80 degrees today, conditions may be on his side. The wind, however, could also be a factor. A southwest wind of 10 to 15 mph could make open-water fishing a little tough.
With the final two days’ weight accumulating to determine the winner, there will be no laying off today. All 10 pros will be fishing for all they can get.
Today’s weigh-in will move to the Florence Wal-Mart located at 3100 Hough Road. The Family Fun Zone will open at 3 p.m. Central time and the weigh-in will begin at 5 p.m.
Friday’s conditions:
Sunrise: 6:14 a.m. 
Temperature at takeoff: 60 degrees
Expected high temperature: 79 degrees
Water temperature: 58-64 degrees
Forecasted winds: SSW at 10 to 15 mph
Day’s outlook: warm, sunny and breezy