Another Giant Carries Evers To BASSFest Win

By BassFan Staff

On a lake where there are seemingly very few remaining secrets, Edwin Evers may have uncovered one of the best ones yet this week.

On day 2, he landed an 8-pounder, which took big bass honors for the day and helped him take over the tournament lead. On Saturday, his 6-12 kicker was the biggest fish weighed among the 60 competitors and helped keep him on top.

Today, when it mattered most and with the biggest name in the sport starting to breathe down his neck on the leaderboard, he brought in an 8-11 giant to anchor his final-day stringer and provide a sizable exclamation point to his latest triumph.

Here’s the kicker (pun intended): All three fish came within the length of a short flip of each other on the water. Somehow, the Oklahoma pro uncovered a spot where some of the biggest fish in the lake happened to be swimming and he figured out how to get them to bite. Those three fish alone accounted for 23-07, a stout total for a five-fish limit at the TVA impoundment, let alone a trio.

“All three of those fish came within a 5-foot circle,” Evers said. “It was the same exact cast each time.”

Evers’ brute from today anchored his 25-00 bag that sealed up an impressive victory at the Kentucky Lake BASSFest. His 97-04 total was 3 pounds better than that of Kevin VanDam, who was trying to claim his seventh career Elite Series win – and third at Kentucky Lake. VanDam, who began the day in 6th place, bagged a final day-best 26-10 to close with 94-04, earning runner-up honors for the second straight BASSFest and sixth time in a full field Elite Series event.

“It’s so awesome,” Evers said of the win. “It’s a blessing. It’s a gift from God.”

Evers joins VanDam, Skeet Reese, Tommy Biffle, Todd Faircloth and Mike McClelland as the only anglers with four or more Elite Series victories.

One of the more important aspects of Evers’ win is he also earned a berth in next year’s Bassmaster Classic at Grand Lake in his home state of Oklahoma. BASSFest is the only Elite Series tournament that awards the winner an automatic berth in the next year's Classic.

“That’s such a big weight off of my shoulders,” he said. “I had a horrible first event at the Sabine River and I’ve been pretty hard to live with since then, but now I’m going to the Classic!”

Brett Hite went the finesse route this week and was the model of consistency as he tacked on 22-14 today to jump two spots to 3rd with 91-09, his second Top-10 finish at Kentucky Lake in 2 years (he was 7th in the FLW Tour event there last year). Tim Horton rose from 9th to 4th with a 22-11 stringer that gave him 88-08. It’s his best finish since a runner-up showing (to VanDam) at Kentucky Lake in 2008.

Fred Roumbanis locked up 5th with an 18-07 sack, his smallest of the week, to close with 87-09.

Here's how the rest of the 12 finalists finished up at BASSFest:

6. Micah Frazier: 87-07
7. Derek Remitz: 87-04
8. Brandon Card: 86-13
9. Brandon Lester: 85-06
10. Billy McCaghren: 80-04
11. Andy Montgomery: 77-07
12. Kotaro Kiriyama: 71-15

Micah Frazier moved up two spots to finish 6th on his 27th birthday, catching 21-09 to close with 87-07. Derek Remitz slipped from 2nd to 7th after catching 17-09 today. Brandon Lester dropped from 3rd to 9th with 15-14 that gave him 85-06.

With as much attention as the ledges at Kentucky Lake got this week, there were several other effective ways to catch fish besides throwing big crankbaits, swimbaits and snack plate-sized spoons. Some went the finesse route with a spinning rod while others went to the bank at various times of the derby when the offshore bite seemed to lag.

The Elite Series will take a nearly 2-month break before the schedule resumes at the St. Lawrence River on July 30-Aug. 2 in Waddington, N.Y. When the competition resumes, the Angler of the Year chase will be a three-man duel with Dean Rojas maintaining the lead with 420 points. Justin Lucas and Aaron Martens are tied for 2nd with 418 apiece. It’s 66 points back to Brent Ehrler in 4th.

Evers Stayed With It

> Day 5: 5, 25-00 (20, 97-04)

Evers was already on the road heading back to Oklahoma this evening when he had to pause a few times to make sure he wasn’t about to turn onto the wrong road. After the week he had at Kentucky Lake, it’s hard to imagine Evers making a wrong turn any time soon.

He said the win hadn’t quite sunk in yet, but he’s humbled to join the group of anglers who’ve four or more Elite Series tournaments.

“That’s amazing to me,” he said. “It hasn’t settled in and I’m just so excited about it. I’m excited about going to the Classic. Financially, it’s a huge blessing for me and my family. I’m just super excited. It’s so hard to win one of these. I’m amazed and thankful.”

He said the day started off “really good,” with a quick limit, including a couple decent fish, “but not the big ones I needed,” he added.

“It was dirt slow for a while after that,” he said. “Today, it was such a grind for me. I think the camera guys were about ready to pull their hair out because it was a long time before I got on them. I almost pulled up stakes and ran 10 more miles south to another little group of fish I had found.

“I said, ‘No, we’re going to run back through it all.’ Man, I lit them up on one spot and it was every stinking cast and it got me to whatever I had before I caught that giant. They were stacked up like cordwood. I went back to where I had those two big bites and hit it again and she bit. I don’t know what to say.”

The spot he caught the big fish this week was the same spot he fished in 2010 when he took 2nd behind VanDam.

“I knew they lived there,” he said. “Last time we were here, I lost multiple big fish there every day.”

Getting them in the boat this time made all the difference for him.

“Those kinds of fish are a blessing,” he said. “I don’t know what to call them, but those are huge.”

When the 8-11 hit Evers’ hair jig today, he said it felt like a normal bite, but when he set the hook, he knew it was a different kind of fish.

“When I set the hook, it didn’t move,” he said. “She was powerful, but I took my time with her and tried to keep her buttoned up. I got pretty excited when I got her in the boat.”

Evers cycled through a variety of baits during the tournament, including a Megabass Spark Shad, a Megabass Deep-6, a Zoom Magnum Trick worm rigged on a shaky-head jig and a bucktail jig made by a friend with hair taken from a deer that was shot on Evers’ farm.

Additional details on Evers’ pattern and those of the rest of the Top 5 will be published at a later date.

2nd: VanDam Wanted Classic Ticket

> Day 5: 5, 26-10 (20, 94-04)

VanDam knew he’d need to have a mighty day and have Evers stumble a bit in order to overtake him today. When it didn’t happen, he was bummed, especially about letting a ticket to next year’s Classic slip through his fingers.

“From where I was sitting after day 3, every point is important now,” he said. “I wanted to win because that’s a Classic berth. I guarantee everybody in contention had that on their minds. My hat’s off to Edwin. He did an amazing job this week. He was the most consistent guy out there.”

VanDam is now up to 7th in the AOY standings with three events remaining before the AOY Championship tournament at Sturgeon Bay.

While Evers made catching big fish a daily routine, VanDam finally tangled with a couple big ones today. His biggest was 7-05 and he had another 6-plus.

“I had flurries every day, but it’s just a matter of getting those bigger ones that are there to bite,” he said. “It’s a lot of down time with moments of excitement. Sometimes, it might be three casts in a row or 10. You just don’t know.”

He mixed a variety of deep-diving Strike King crankbaits with a 10-inch worm rigged on a Mustad Fastach head and also threw a hair jig at times this week.

3rd: Another Morning Frenzy For Hite

> Day 5: 5, 22-14 (20, 91-09)

The morning bite was strong again today for Hite, who got back on track after two disappointing finishes out West. The one thing that eluded him all tournament was how to tap into anything consistent once the clock hit 10 or 10:30 a.m.

“All week, I caught them really good up until 10 and I’d struggle from there on,” he said. “I’d get some bites and upgrade here and there, but I never got those big schools fired up again.”

He checked BASSTrakk this morning after his flurry – competitors on the final day are allowed to follow the unofficial standings online – and saw he’d moved into the lead, but he opted to not check it again.

“I didn’t want to check it later and see that VanDam had caught 27 pounds or something and get my feelings hurt,” he said. “I had what I had at 10 and I knew I was ahead for a long time, but I also knew I needed a big weight today and it just didn’t happen.”

Overall, he had no regrets as he employed a “power finesse” technique to catch his fish this week. A wacky-rigged 7.75-inch Gary Yamamoto Kut Tail worm (plum) with a nail weight in the nose fished on a dropshot rig was his go-to presentation.

“I didn’t lose any fish that I had hooked,” he said. “It was a really good tournament and it feels good to get back in the saddle and get back up into the 40s in (AOY) points. We have two smallmouth fisheries and a grass fishery left so I think that plays into my favor.

“If someone would’ve asked me at the start of the week if I’d take 91 pounds for a total, I think everybody would’ve said, ‘Yes.’”

4th: Late Flurry Lifts Horton

> Day 5: 5, 22-11 (20, 88-08)

Horton followed up his smallest bag of the event on Saturday with one he was pretty proud of today. After struggling for much of the early part of the day, typically the time when he’d catch his best fish, he opted to scrap what he was doing and where he was doing it and get back into search mode.

That’s right – on the final day of the tournament, with two fish that weighed probably 4 pounds in his livewell, Horton decided to start idling and graphing new areas just like he did in practice.

At 2:15, he finally hit paydirt. He came upon what he called “the biggest school of bass I've ever found on the Tennessee River,” and quickly amassed a 22-11 stringer that carried him to his best Elite Series finish in 7 years.

“I was very pleased,” he said. “It was a good tournament. I would’ve liked to have been in contention – Saturday hurt my chances there – but all in all it was a fun week.”

It certainly was a fun last hour for the Muscle Shoals, Ala., pro, who stuck with a Profound Outdoors Z-Boss 20 or 25 crankbait all week.

“Today was very gratifying,” he said. “I took a big gamble and it all worked out. When I had those two 15-inchers at 9:30, I decided to scrap everything and graph for the rest of the day. I wanted to give myself a chance to win.

“I found a place I was pretty positive nobody else was fishing, because it was so good. It was the best place I’ve ever found. There were so many 3- to 3 1/2-pound fish there that I had to go through 15 or 20 of those and then I’d catch a 5-pounder. I only had 45 minutes to fish so it would’ve been a good place to have found in practice.”

5th: Roumbanis Was Counting on Big Finale

> Day 5: 5, 18-07 (20, 87-09)

Roumbanis went out this morning brimming with confidence that he’d be able to follow up his nearly 27-pound bag from Saturday with something similar and take a run at the win.

He was dumbfounded when he pulled up to his spot and discovered the fish weren’t as numerous or as big as they’d been.

“I can’t believe how they disappeared on me,” he said. “It was the craziest feeling. I had an eerie feeling when I got there. I lost a 5-pounder that jumped over my hand. That one fish would’ve put me in 4th probably, but that’s fishing. I wound up 5th, so I’ll take it.”

On Saturday, most of the fish he caught came out of the 22- to 24-foot zone and that’s where he concentrated his efforts today until the last hour.

“At the end of the day, I went up on top to where it was 12 or 13 feet and caught a 3 3/4-pounder that helped me cull,” he said. “Then I caught a 4-pounder. I’d already told my camera guy to pack his stuff up, we were done. I said, ‘Well, I fished the wrong area today.’ It was literally 50 yards from where I’d fished earlier.”

A 7-inch Optimum Baits Victory Tail swimbait rigged either on a heavy bladed jighead or a big hair jig was his primary bait most of the event. He also caught some keepers on the 8-inch Nichols Lures Ben Parker spoon.

Notable

> Day 5 stats – 12 anglers, 11 limits, 1 four.

Final Standings

1. Edwin Evers -- Talala, OK -- 20, 97-04 -- 100 -- $103,000
Day 1: 5, 24-00 -- Day 2: 5, 27-02 -- Day 3: 5, 21-02 -- Day 4: 5, 25-00

2. Kevin VanDam -- Kalamazoo, MI -- 20, 94-04 -- 99 -- $60,000
Day 1: 5, 23-09 -- Day 2: 5, 24-05 -- Day 3: 5, 19-12 -- Day 4: 5, 26-10

3. Brett Hite -- Phoenix, AZ -- 20, 91-09 -- 98 -- $35,000
Day 1: 5, 23-05 -- Day 2: 5, 23-06 -- Day 3: 5, 22-00 -- Day 4: 5, 22-14

4. Tim Horton -- Muscle Shoals, AL -- 20, 88-08 -- 97 -- $32,000
Day 1: 5, 20-03 -- Day 2: 5, 27-01 -- Day 3: 5, 18-09 -- Day 4: 5, 22-11

5. Fred Roumbanis -- Bixby, OK -- 20, 87-09 -- 96 -- $21,000
Day 1: 5, 21-09 -- Day 2: 5, 20-10 -- Day 3: 5, 26-15 -- Day 4: 5, 18-07

6. Micah Frazier -- Newnan, GA -- 20, 87-07 -- 95 -- $18,000
Day 1: 5, 19-01 -- Day 2: 5, 26-11 -- Day 3: 5, 20-02 -- Day 4: 5, 21-09

7. Derek Remitz -- Grant, AL -- 20, 87-04 -- 94 -- $18,000
Day 1: 5, 19-03 -- Day 2: 5, 28-01 -- Day 3: 5, 22-07 -- Day 4: 5, 17-09

8. Brandon Card -- Caryville, TN -- 20, 86-13 -- 93 -- $16,000
Day 1: 5, 20-02 -- Day 2: 5, 22-06 -- Day 3: 5, 24-08 -- Day 4: 5, 19-13

9. Brandon Lester -- Fayetteville, TN -- 20, 85-06 -- 92 -- $15,000
Day 1: 5, 22-14 -- Day 2: 5, 22-05 -- Day 3: 5, 24-05 -- Day 4: 5, 15-14

10. Billy McCaghren -- Mayflower, AR -- 20, 80-04 -- 91 -- $14,000
Day 1: 5, 21-12 -- Day 2: 5, 19-04 -- Day 3: 5, 21-15 -- Day 4: 5, 17-05

11. Andy Montgomery -- Blacksburg, SC -- 20, 77-07 -- 90 -- $13,000
Day 1: 5, 25-04 -- Day 2: 5, 17-02 -- Day 3: 5, 21-07 -- Day 4: 5, 13-10

12. Kotaro Kiriyama -- Moody, AL -- 19, 71-15 -- 89 -- $12,000
Day 1: 5, 21-15 -- Day 2: 5, 15-08 -- Day 3: 5, 24-15 -- Day 4: 4, 9-09