JASPER, Texas (Oct. 5, 2013) – Jason Wells of Center, Texas, weighed a five-bass limit totaling 18 pounds, 3 ounces Saturday to win the EverStart Series Texas Division tournament on Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Wells’ three-day total of 15 bass weighing 57 pounds, 14 ounces earned him $24,881.
“I’m speechless,” said Wells, whose previous career best was a seventh-place finish when the FLW Tour visited Sam Rayburn in October of 2012 “The key to this victory for me was Jesus Christ. Several things happened for me out there that shouldn’t have happened, and I believe I owe the credit to him.”
Wells caught the majority of his fish this week cranking brush piles in 10 to 15 feet of water. In the weeks leading up to the event, Wells estimated that he had 20 to 25 different areas that were producing fish for him. By tournament time, it had narrowed to only eight.
“The fish seemed to bite better when the sun was out,” said Wells. “The shallow-water guys liked the overcast skies, but I caught them better in the afternoon. My six-pounder today came around 2:30.
“I fished my eight different areas, but none were consistent,” Wells said. “One spot was hot one day, then another was hot the next. I caught 10 fish on the first day, eight on day two, and only had six keepers today. It was an extremely hard tournament.”
Wells said that most of the fish that he weighed in this week came via cranking Tennessee-shad-colored Norman DD22 Series and Strike King 6XD crankbaits. Two of his keepers came Texas-rigging red-bug-colored soft plastics.
“I fished 12-pound fluorocarbon line on my Lews Reels, kept my head down, and just kept cranking.”
The top 10 pros at Sam Rayburn Reservoir were:
1st: Jason Wells, Center, Texas, 15 bass, 57-14, $24,881
2nd: Kris Wilson, Montgomery, Texas, 15 bass, 50-4, $9,330
3rd: Ray Hanselman, Del Rio, Texas, 14 bass, 50-0, $6,220
4th: Philip Crelia, Center, Texas, 15 bass, 49-1, $5,598
5th: Todd Castledine, Nacogdoches, Texas, 15 bass, 46-7, $4,976
6th: Tommy Dickerson, Orange, Texas, 14 bass, 41-9, $4,354
7th: Chris McCall, Brookeland, Texas, 14 bass, 41-9, $3,732
8th: Neal Gilmore, Magnolia, Texas, 15 bass, 41-1, $3,110
9th: James Niggemeyer, Van, Texas, 15 bass, 40-11, $2,488
10th: Wade Hudgens, Longview, Texas, 11 bass, 38-1, $1,866
Ed Klobas of Arlington, Texas caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the pro division on Friday – a 9-pound, 14-ounce – bass that earned him the day’s EverStart Series Big Bass award of $158. Brandon Bray of Marble Falls, Texas, won the co-angler division and a Ranger Z117 with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor with a three-day total of 12 bass weighing 26 pounds, 6 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers on Sam Rayburn Reservoir were:
1st: Brandon Bray, Marble Falls, Texas, 12 bass, 26-6, Ranger Z117 with 90-horsepower outboard
2nd: Kevin Burks, Kountze, Texas, 11 bass, 25-7, $3,434
3rd: Bill Fussell, Thibodaux, La., 12 bass, 25-3, $2,747
4th: Cary Walker, Nacogdoches, Texas, 11 bass, 22-0, $2,404
5th: Dan Wilson, Pilot Point, Texas, seven bass, 20-6, $2,061
6th: Robert Hill, Fort Worth, Texas, six bass, 19-10, $1,717
7th: Mike Power, Conroe, Texas, nine bass, 19-9, $1,374
8th: Ralph Logan Sr., Magnolia, Texas, eight bass, 18-7, $1,030
9th: Ron Knight, San Angelo, Texas, six bass, 15-9, $687
10th: Michael Greer Jr., Deridder, La., six bass, 15-3, $549
Brent Cutrer of Natchez, Miss., and Jack Knox Jr., of Seymour, Texas tied for the EverStart Series Big Bass co-angler award after both brought a bass to the scales weighing 6 pounds, 11 ounces on Thursday. They split the day’s award of $104.