According to a B.A.S.S. press release sent out earlier this week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently rated the bass fishing at Illinois' Lake Shelbyville as "excellent." Judging by the performance of the 12 anglers on the first day of Toyota Trucks All-Star Week, that might've been a bit of an overstatement.
Edwin Evers was the only competitor to bring a limit to the scale, and he leads with 13-01. Defending All-Star champion Ott DeFoe is 2nd, nearly 2 pounds back after weighing a four-fish, 11-03 sack.
“I’m doing something that I don’t think anyone else is doing,” Evers said. “If I can catch five more keepers tomorrow that weigh 7 or 8 pounds, I’ll feel really good about my chances.”
Nobody besides Evers and DeFoe even got close to a double-digit bag. Half the field weighed no more than a single keeper.
The full field will be back on Shelbyville again tomorrow. From there, the four anglers with the most cumulative weight will advance to a seeded 2-day "match play" tournament at nearby Lake Decatur.
The two winners from Saturday's head-to-head duels will compete for the victory on Sunday.
Here are the totals for day 1:
1. Edwin Evers: 5, 13-01
2. Ott DeFoe: 4, 11-03
3. Aaron Martens: 4, 7-07
4. Skeet Reese: 2, 5-11
5. Todd Faircloth: 3, 4-05
6. Kevin VanDam: 2, 4-00
7. Mike Iaconelli: 1, 4-00
8. Gerald Swindle: 1, 3-12
9. Matt Herren 1, 1-13
10. Brent Chapman: 1, 1-09
11. Terry Scroggins: 1, 1-06
12. Randy Howell: 0, 0-00
