PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (Sept. 25, 2004) - Craig Workman of Fort Worth, Texas, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 32 pounds, 9 ounces to win the final EverStart Series Northern Division bass fishing tournament of the season, which took place on New York's Lake Champlain. Workman earned $10,000 plus an Evinrude- or Yamaha-powered Ranger 519 VS valued at $41,900.
Anglers caught record weights this week on Champlain. The field weighed a staggering 3,992 pounds, 11 ounces of bass on Wednesday - a one-day EverStart Series record. A cold front pushed through Saturday bringing stiff winds and rain, but anglers still managed to weigh quality limits. Champlain tournaments are typically dominated by smallmouths, but plenty of largemouths made their way to the scales during the four-day event.
"I practiced for nine days," Workman said, "and noticed that after a cold front, the largemouth bite would get tough. A cold front come through last night, so I planned on go after smallmouths today. Well, I tried, but the wind was too strong in my areas. Plus, I kept thinking if those largemouths would bite.
"So finally at 8:30 a.m. I decided to go see if I could catch the largemouths. I got to the spot and it was wham, wham, wham! They were there and boy had they grown up. I had a limit in 45 minutes and culled four times to end up with 17 pounds for the day.
"I caught most of my fish in 8 to 14 feet of water flipping a Texas-rigged Brush Hog."
Rounding out the top five pros were Charlie Hartley of Grove City, Ohio (10 bass, 31 pounds); Scott Dobson of Waterford, Mich. (10 bass, 30 pounds, 13 ounces); Mark Zona of Sturgis, Mich. (10 bass, 30 pounds, 9 ounces); and Art Ferguson of St. Clair Shores, Mich. (10 bass, 28 pounds, 14 ounces).
Hartley also won the $1,500 Ranger Cup bonus.
Kenneth Witter of Pine Valley led every round of the event to capture the co-angler title and the $5,000 first-place prize. Witter, who had never fished an EverStart Series event prior to this tournament, caught a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 30 pounds, 1ounce.
"This weather and fish changed a little today," Witter said. "I fished the same way I had all week but just slowed down. We were fishing up to 25 deep. I had a great week and caught good smallmouths and largemouths. I know the lake fairly well and practiced four days, and that really helped."
Rounding out the top five co-anglers were Rob McMurray of Troy, Mich. (10 bass, 29 pounds, 6 ounces); Dale Clark of Harrison, Mich. (nine bass, 25 pounds, 12 ounces); Chuck Willis of Dayton, Ohio (10 bass, 24 pounds, 6 ounces); and Brad Taylor of Catlettsburg (nine bass, 23 pounds, 10 ounces).
The tournament began Wednesday with 192 pros and 192 co-anglers competing for one of 20 slots in Friday's semifinal round. Weights were cleared for the semifinal round, and the top 10 from Friday's competition fished Saturday for the win.
The winning pro is guaranteed $10,000 cash plus an Evinrude- or Yamaha-powered Ranger 519 VS equipped with Garmin electronics, a Minn Kota trolling motor and EverStart Batteries. If the winner is the original owner of a Ranger boat, he will receive a $10,000 bonus from Ranger for a top pro award worth $61,900. If he is a qualifying participant in the Ranger Cup incentive program, Ranger will award another $3,000 cash (or $1,500 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant if not the winner), and Yamaha will match 50 percent of Ranger Cup winnings if the angler's boat is powered by a Yamaha outboard. Garmin will award the winning pro $1,000 if he uses only Garmin electronics and at least one unit is a qualifying unit.
The winning co-angler is guaranteed $5,000 cash, and if he is a Ranger boat owner, Ranger will award him a new Ranger 519 VS for a total prize package worth $35,000.
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.