OKEECHOBEE, Fla. (Jan. 21, 2012) – Brandon Medlock of Lake Placid, Fla., weighed a five-bass limit totaling 15 pounds, 3 ounces Saturday to win the EverStart Series Southeast Division bass fishing tournament on Lake Okeechobee with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 68 pounds, 2 ounces. For his victory, Medlock earned $35,000.
“I am shocked,” said Medlock who won for the second year in a row. “I was shocked last year when I won and I’m even more shocked this year. It’s a little unbelievable.
“I was surprised a little bit by this week’s weights, I really thought it was going to take 80 pounds to win,” Medlock went on to say. “When I came in on the first day with a little over 17 pounds I thought I had blown the tournament completely. Yesterday was a phenomenal day for me with the 35-pound sack. I made all the right decisions and it paid off. I don’t think there was one thing that I did wrong yesterday. Everything went my way, it was incredible.
“I was flipping all week with my dad’s jig, the Medlock Jig, and using Gambler Crickets. That’s really it, nothing special. I covered a lot of water, staying in places less than an hour. The first day I wasted five hours in one area because of the wind, but the last two days I was able to move around a lot more and I think that really helped. I was targeting very specific stuff and if it didn’t look right I moved on. I will be fishing the FLW Tour Open in a few weeks so I don’t really want to talk a lot about what I was targeting.
Medlock believes that the FLW Tour Open, which takes place on Lake Okeechobee February 9-12, will be another record breaking weight tournament. He along with many of the other pros that fished the EverStart this past week stated that Lake Okeechobee wasn’t fishing it’s best but that in a couple of weeks it will be on fire again. A full moon and warmer weather will really change things for the upcoming Open.
Rounding out the top 10 pros were:
2nd: Randall Tharp, Gardenvale, Ala., 15 bass, 62-0, $12,000
3rd: Keith Fels, Ocala, Fla., 15 bass, 55-10, $10,000
4th: Brian Holder, Gastonia, N.C., 15 bass, 48-14, $9,000
5th: Bryan Honnerlaw, Moore Haven, Fla., 15 bass, 47-6, $8,000
6th: Kent Ware, Wadmalaw Island, S.C., 15 bass, 42-9, $7,000
7th: Clent Davis, Montevallo, Ala., 15 bass, 41-14, $6,000
8th: George Kapiton, Inverness, Fla., 14 bass, 41-6, $5,000
9th: Brandon McMillan, Clewiston, Fla., 13 bass, 40-10, $4,000
10th: Jeff Fitts, Keystone Heights, Fla., 15 bass, 39-12, $3,000
Medlock caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Pro Division Friday – a 10-pound, 8-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Big Bass award of $300.
Rodney Glunt of Orlando, Fla., won the Co-angler Division and a Ranger 177TR with an Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor with a three-day total of 11 bass weighing 29 pound, 4 ounces.
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers were:
2nd: Cal Clark, Pulaski, Tenn., 13 bass, 28-5, $4,500
3rd: Kevin Spooner, Vero Beach, Fla., 12 bass, 26-7, $4,000
4th: Vince Parker, Keystone Heights, Fla., 12 bass, 25-12, $3,500
5th: Joe Ventrello, Orlando, Fla., 15 bass, 24-8, $3,000
6th: Brad Aldridge, Starkville, Miss., Fla., 11 bass, 24-2, $2,500
7th: James Boyd, Russellville, Ala., nine bass, 20-1, $2,000
8th: Michael David Young, Bowling Green, Ky., 12 bass, 19-13, $1,500
9th: Ron Buck, Port Saint Lucie, Fla., 11 bass, 18-9, $1,000
10th: James Brooks, Inverness, Fla., 8 bass, 16-13, $800
Curtis Seale caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Thursday – a 7-pound, 13-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Big Bass award of $200.
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 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 the Ouachita River in Monroe, La., Nov. 1-4.
The next EverStart Series Southeast Division tournament will be March 22-24 at Lake Seminole in Bainbridge, Ga., and is hosted by Bainbridge Convention & Visitors Bureau.