Bassmaster Open Season ends with unusal tie-breakers...

[sTony]

The Bassmaster Central Open season ended last Sunday like it began: in overtime.

Sunday on Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin, Bassmaster Elite Series pro Edwin Evers of Talala, Okla., outfished Mark Smith of West Monroe, La., to break their 35-pound, 9-ounce, tie, which both anglers tallied over the course of three days. Evers boated 14 pounds, 7 ounces, in the overtime period, enough to outlast Smith.

In the Central season opener on Toledo Bend in early March, two Texans went head-to-head to settle a 37-14 standoff. Elite pro James Niggemeyer of Van bested Jerrel Pringle of Hemphill in overtime for the season-opener win.

Tie-breakers are rare, let alone two in a single season in the same division.

Odd enough, for sure. But throw in another tie-breaker situation, the one on the co-angler side at the same Atchafalaya event, and the coincidence grows.

BASS has been conducting tournaments for more than 40 years and tiebreakers are extremely rare, let alone two in the same event.

In that co-angler situation, the tie-breaker of heaviest single-day catch broke the tie at 21-11 in favor of David Cooper of Vidalia, La., over Jeff Wade of Cabot, Ark., by virtue of Cooper’s first-day bag of 13-5.

Yet another tie-breaker was triggered by the Central Open finale. When Niggemeyer double-qualified for the 2010 Bassmaster Classic, BASS rules say he takes his Classic seat through the Central Open, not through the Elite Series. The next pro on the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points list is tapped.

But two pros, Mark Tucker of St. Louis, Mo., and Matt Reed of Madisonville, Texas, were next on the Elite list, tied at 37th place. The BASS tie-breaker applicable to the situation states that the award goes to the pro with the highest total weight from all full-field days of all eight 2009 regular-season Elite Series tournaments.

So Tucker, with 214-3 to Reed’s 211-4, is going to the Classic.

There’s yet another twist to the tale. That key 37th place was originally tied up three ways, with Jamie Fralick of Martin, S.D., shouldered in beside Tucker and Reed. But Fralick, with a weight of 220-2, was the first winner under the tie-breaker when he was awarded a Classic berth after defending champion Skeet Reese double-qualified through the Elite Series.

CONSORTIUM WRAP: In just two weeks’ time, Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Women’s Tour pro Robin Babb pulled together an unusual sponsorship deal that includes a new boat wrap.

Babb, who lives on Lake Livingston in southeastern Texas, qualified just under the wire for the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Women’s Tour Championship out of Shreveport-Bossier City, La., in October.

Spurred on by the promotional opportunities that come along with the Championship, Babb came up with an idea to entice many people to chip in small amounts of money to put her and her boat while promoting Lake Livingston. After doing her research, she pitched the idea to the president of her local chamber of commerce.

“I said to her, ‘We have a wonderful opportunity because not only is the championship within three hours of Lake Livingston, but next year, four out of five WBT events are within four hours of our area, so we need to capitalize on this. In this economy, people are looking for places to go close to home, so this is a great chance to market the Lake Livingston area.’

“She started making phone calls, I made phone calls and it caught on. I got all the people on board, plus new tournament jerseys ordered, boat graphics designed and the wrap completed in two weeks,â€