Victory Bittersweet For Oklahoman
YUM Pro Edwin Evers brought 14-pounds, 3-Ounces to the stage on Day 3 of the BASS Central Division Open event on the Atchafalaya Basin out of Morgan City, La. It was enough to jump him from third to a first-place tie with local angler Mark Smith and force a Day 4 Fish-Off.
Smith used his local knowledge to lead the tournament from Day 1, but before the Fish-Off indicated that his spot was about to run out of fish, and let out that the day before he was forced to look outside his main area just to fill out his five-fish limit.
Evers, meanwhile, was buttoning up the pattern in the vegetation he was fishing. With an action that often spells disaster for pro anglers, Evers said he abandoned his original spot just an hour after the tournament began on Day 1 and started searching.
Evers used a spinnerbait for less than an hour each morning while the bass were still roaming the outside edge of the weeds, but went to a Texas rigged YUM Money Craw and Craw Papi to punch through the grass when the sun rose and pushed the fish back into the shade. He fished the Money Craw with a 1-ounce weight and the Craw Papi with a 3/16-ounce weight. He said his area was getting better and better, and that he had learned more about it each day.
Evers used his accumulating knowledge and that fishing pattern to weigh in the largest sack of the tournament on Fish-Off Day – 14-pounds, 7-ounces -- netting him the title and the big check. It was what slipped through his fingers that made the victory bittersweet.
While he took home the winner’s hardware, Evers missed qualifying for the 2010 Bassmaster Classic by seven measly Angler Of the Year points. He did, however, get the opportunity to prefish the 2011 Bassmaster Classic to be held on the same water, which is the reason he gave for not completely identifying the area he fished. He feels the area could come into play in that tournament, which he certainly intends to be fishing.