Banana Boat pro Kevin Vida of Clare, Mich., says bass will be into their summer patterns at tournament time and will be scattered across lakes Erie and St. Clair in search of forage. He and fellow EverStart Series pro Steve Clapper of Lima, Ohio, believe bass will likely be found in 16 to 22 feet of water on offshore humps and, according to Clapper, they will likely respond to green and brown tubes. Spinner baits should also come in handy for anglers fishing Lake St. Clair, with white and chartreuse being the most productive colors.
Anglers will take off each morning from Elizabeth Park in Trenton at 6 a.m., and Wednesday and Thursday’s weigh-ins will also be held there beginning at 2 p.m. Friday and Saturday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 7555 Telegraph Road in Taylor beginning at 2 p.m.
Opening-round anglers compete for two days to determine the 20 anglers in each division who advance to Friday’s semifinal round based on their two-day accumulated weight. Pros and co-anglers start at zero Friday and compete for one of 10 slots in Saturday’s final round. Weights are again cleared for Saturday’s competition, and anglers compete for position and prize money.
The winning pro is guaranteed $10,000 cash and an Evinrude- or Yamaha-powered Ranger 519VS Comanche bass boat equipped with EverStart batteries, a Minn Kota trolling motor and Garmin electronics. If the winner is the original owner of a Ranger boat, Ranger will award an additional $10,000 cash bonus for a total prize package of $61,900. The winning co-angler is guaranteed $5,000 cash. If the co-angler winner is a registered Ranger boat owner, Ranger will also award a new Ranger 519VS Comanche bass boat.
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 $5.76 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the world’ s most lucrative bass-tournament series, the EverStart Series features four divisions – Central, Eastern, Northern and Western – with four regular-season events each. The season culminates with the $335,975 EverStart Series Championship, which will be held Oct. 29-Nov. 1 on Old Hickory Lake near Gallatin, Tenn. The event will be broadcast to 55 million subscribers of the Outdoor Life Network on the “FLW Outdoors” television series. Central Division anglers who finish in the top 40 in the final points standings are eligible to compete in the championship.
The EverStart Series is administered by FLW Outdoors, the world’s leading marketer of competitive fishing. Other FLW Outdoors-sanctioned tournament trails are the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, 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. ###
Editors Note: For a complete list of FLW Outdoors sponsors and for more information about the premier products and services they offer, please visit FLWOutdoors.com. A roster of EverStart Series competitors is also available at FLWOutdoors.com.