TRENTON, Mich. (July 7, 2004) - The Schick Quattro Northern Division of the $3.88 million EverStart Series will travel to the Detroit River near Trenton July 21-24 for the second of four regular-season events. The tournament is expected to draw as many as 200 pros and 200 co-anglers to the Trenton area, with the winning pro set to earn as much as $61,900 in cash and prizes, including a fully rigged Ranger boat. The tournament will pay out as much as $256,825 in cash and prizes based on a full field.
When it comes to the Detroit River, options abound for Northern Division competitors. Anglers can take refuge in the river itself and tempt largemouths with soft plastics, spinnerbaits, jigs and buzzbaits. They can also make lengthy runs into lakes Erie and St. Clair to target thick wads of bronzebacks that will be cruising shallow weedbeds and rock piles or piled up on deep, underwater reefs, islands and shoals. The angler brave enough to make a lengthy run to Erie will likely find a winning stringer, according to 2003 EverStart Series Northern Division points champion Mark Zona.
"About the only thing that will change that is if the wind blows at gale force and nobody is able to get out," Zona said. "The wind is your biggest opponent, and what it does dictates your every move. If winds are moderate, the tournament will be won out on Erie, no doubt about it. If it does blow, St. Clair will become a serious factor."
Anglers will take off from Elizabeth Park, located at 200 Grosse Isle Parkway in Trenton, at 6:30 each morning. Wednesday and Thursday's weigh-ins will also be held at Elizabeth Park beginning at 2:30 p.m., and Friday and Saturday's weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 7555 Telegraph Road in Taylor beginning at 3:30 p.m. The community is encouraged to attend daily takeoffs and weigh-ins.
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.
The EverStart Series features a pro/co-angler format with pros supplying the boats, fishing from the front deck against other pros and controlling boat movement. Co-anglers fish from the back deck and compete against other co-anglers. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points that determine angler standings. Two hundred points are awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 points for third, and so on.
Designed as a pathway to the $6.8 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the world's most lucrative bass-tournament series, the EverStart Series features four divisions - Eastern, Central, Northern and Western - with four regular-season events each. The season culminates with the $335,975 EverStart Series Championship, which will be held Nov. 3-6 on Lake Cumberland near Somerset, Ky. The event will be broadcast to 65 million subscribers of the Outdoor Life Network on the "FLW Outdoors" television series. Northern Division anglers who finish in the top 40 in the final points standings are eligible to compete in the championship.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors is the world's leading marketer of competitive fishing. FLW Outdoors-sanctioned tournament trails are the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour and Wal-Mart RCL Walleye League. EverStart Batteries, the best-selling batteries in the world, are marketed exclusively by Wal-Mart stores.
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.
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