BUFFALO, N.Y. (Aug. 20, 2011) – Lawrence Mazur of Lancaster, N.Y., weighed a five-bass limit totaling 20 pounds, 1 ounce Saturday to win the EverStart Series Northern Division bass fishing tournament on Lake Erie with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 64 pounds, 8 ounces. For his victory, Mazur earned $26,722 and a 198VX Ranger boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor.
“It was a tough, tough run, but I made it,” said Mazur. “I’m speechless. It’s been a long time coming. I’ve been at this a long time and had a lot of letdowns, but I finally put it all together.”
Mazur said it took him an hour and 20 minutes to run to his spot Saturday. When he got there he couldn’t find fish on his graph, so he relocated to another spot, dropped his drop-shot rig in deep water and proceeded to catch 40 keepers.
“I started marking them and started whacking them,” Mazur said.
Mazur tipped his drop-shot rig with a Poor Boys Erie Darter. He used a green bait early in the day and switched to a gobie-colored bait as the sun got higher in the sky. He fished the bait 18 inches off of the bottom in 52 to 70 feet of water. Mazur said he relied on a ¾-ounce weight to get the bait down quickly to fish he had marked on the graph before they had a chance to move away.
“I might mark one or two fish on a specific rock, so I want to get it down to them quickly,” Mazur said. “They either see it coming down or it lands next to them and startles them and they just grab it. I’m not dragging it, so you get it down there, flip your bail and hold it and then it just gets heavy.
“It was fun,” Mazur added. “The guys that fished with me have never fished like that and they had the time of their life. I like showing people a good time.”
Rounding out the top 10 pros were:
2nd: Gaspare Costabile, Niagra Falls, Ont., 15 bass, 62-0, $9,162
3rd: Simon Frost, St. Catharines, Ont., 15 bass, 58-15, $7,635
4th: Mike Desforges, Burlington, Ont., 15 bass, 54-12, $6,871
5th: John Voyles, Petersburg, Ind., 15 bass, 54-9, $6,108
6th: Barry Pringle, Welland, Ont., 15 bass, 54-8, $5,344
7th: Brad Brodnicki, Amherst, N.Y., 15 bass, 52-8, $4,581
8th: Bob Izumi, Milton, Ont., 15 bass, 50-13, $3,817
9th: Chris Johnston, Peterborough, Ont., 15 bass, 48-13, $3,054
10th: John Murray, Phoenix, Ariz., 14 bass, 44-13, $2,290
Izumi caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Pro Division Friday – a 6-pound, 2-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s EverStart Series Big Bass award of $200.
Edward Pecore of Plattsburgh, N.Y., won the Co-angler Division and a Ranger boat with an Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 54 pounds, 4 ounces.
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers were:
2nd: Milton Goff, Knoxville, Md., 15 bass, 53-4, $3,652
3rd: Chris Kenney-Hermes, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 15 bass, 51-5, $3,246
4th: Nicolas Supik, Butler, Pa., 15 bass, 49-0, $2,841
5th: James Dixon, Southfield, Mich., 15 bass, 49-0, $2,435
6th: Kenneth Ramsier, Girard, Pa., 15 bass, 46-12, $2,029
7th: Shing Wai Yeung, Oakville, Ont., 15 bass, 46-8, $1,623
8th: Rick Rickman, Gainesville, Texas, 15 bass, 44-13, $1,217
9th: Gary Knight, Magnolia, Del., 15 bass, 43-13, $812
10th: Gerard Ling, St. Catharines, Ont., 14 bass, 39-10, $649
Casey Magargle of Turbotville, Pa., caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Friday – a 6-pound, 4-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s EverStart Series Big Bass award of $133.
The EverStart Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division consists of four tournaments and competitors will be vying for valuable points in each division that could earn them the Strike King Angler of the Year title along with $5,000 for the pro and $2,000 for the co-angler. The top 40 pros and co-anglers from each respective division will qualify for the EverStart Series Championship that will be held on Kentucky Lake in Buchanan, Tenn., Oct. 27-30.
The next EverStart Series Northern Division tournament will be Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at the Potomac River in Marbury, Md.