Sorting Out All Star Week

B.A.S.S. Photo Seigo Saito

Twenty-two anglers are fishing two separate events on three largely unknown Michigan waterways this weekend, with the competition beginning this morning. Fourteen B.A.S.S. All Stars are competing for total purse of $100,000 ($50,000 for first place). Eight top collegiate anglers are competing for a spot in the 2013 Bassmaster Classic at Lake Guntersville. The tournaments themselves, which are concurrent, both follow unique formats.

The All Star event begins with all 14 anglers fishing two days on Muskegon Lake. The top four from Friday's and Saturday's fishing will move onto the final round, with weights zeroed, and fish a single day on Sunday at nearby White Lake for the championship. All fourteen anglers got practice time on both lakes this week.

The All Star field includes the top eight anglers in this season's Angler of the Year Standings (Aaron Martens, Edwin Evers, Kevin VanDam, Bobby Lane, Keith Combs, Alton Jones, John Crews, Chris Zaldain); rookie of the year (Hank Cherry); 2013 Bassmaster Classic Champion (Cliff Pace) and four anglers chosen through fan voting (Brandon Palaniuk, Mike Iaconelli, Gerald Swindle, Skeet Reece).

The College Series Classic Bracket, which will take place on the Grand River, just south of Muskegon, includes the four two-man teams that finished highest in the College Championship on Lake Chatuge earlier this summer. The anglers won't competing as teams, though. Instead they'll fish as eight individuals in an elimination-style event that will finish with two anglers fishing head-to-head on Sunday for the chance to be the college representative in the Bassmaster Classic.

Learn more about how to follow both events at the unfold at www.bassmaster.com.

Fish Pitched a Shutout

The good news is that I caught twice as many fish as Nathaniel did today. The bad news is that he also caught twice as many as I did. Yep. Only one thing that can mean.

We began by fishing vertically with ice lures tipped with worms in the deep part of the pond and really thought that would be the ticket. However, we never got as much a sniff. One limitation, contrasted to winter days when we've done well with the same approach, is that the wind was absolutely howling and the only way we could keep lines down and present lures effectively was to anchor. Normally we can drift slowly, so that might help us find fish. We don't have electronics on Nathaniel's johnboat, so we don't really know where the structure and cover are in the deep end of the pond. We just know the general area where we catch the most fish during the winter.

When the fish wouldn't bite in the middle, we decided to work the perimeter for a while. However, the wind made that even more of a losing cause, especially for Nathaniel, who had to keep a constant hand on the trolling motor. We worked down one bank and around a corner, but lacking any obvious interest from the fish, we didn't stick with shoreline casting terribly long.

So the bass and bream pitched a shutout today, but I'm still glad we got out there for a while.

Final All-Star Match-Up Set

All Star finalists Aaron Martens and Edwin Evers. B.A.S.S. Photo by Seigo Saito.

Aaron Martens and Edwin Evers both won their brackets comfortably yesterday and are set to go head to head today on Illinois' Lake Decatur. Martens and Evers had similar catches in the semi-final round on the same waters, with Martens weighing 8-13 and Evers weighing 8-6. Evers does not think he will be able to get back into the area he fished yesterday because the water level dropped significantly. Martens, on the other hand, intentionally left fish a couple of times yesterday. Both have figured out way to catch some of these fish in a lake that is fishing very tough, so it seems like execution will be critical and that any given fish on the line could make or break the final round.

And Then There Were Four

Edwin Evers was the top finisher in the first round of All Star Week. B.A.S.S. photo by Seigo Saito.

Edwin Evers and Ott DeFoe continued to roll on day two of  B.A.S.S. All Star week and easily took the top two spots in the first round of the event. Third and fourth places went to Aaron Martens and Gerald Swindle. The other eight All Stars are finished.

Except for determining match-ups, the order of the top four doesn't matter today. They begin with a clean slate as Evers goes against Swindle and DeFoe goes against Martens in an elimination round. Tomorrow the two winners will compete head to head in the championship round. Patterns and spots the pros have had working also don't matter because they are fishing a different lake for the remainder of the competition.

The Bassmaster Blog is a great place to log the action as it unfolds today and tomorrow.

Edwin Evers Takes Early Lead

Edwin Evers brought the lone limit to the scales from Day 1 of B.A.S.S. All Star Week and took an early lead in the competition. B.A.S.S. Photo by Seigo Saito.

With the first round of B.A.S.S. All Star Week halfway in the books, Edwin Evers and Ott DeFoe (who places 2nd and1st in last year's all stars) have stepped ahead of the pack. Evers and DeFoe weighed 13-1 and 11-3, respectively, yesterday, with the other 10 competitors each bringing 7-7 or less to the scales. All 12 All Stars will fish again today at Illinois' Lake Shelbyville, and then only the top four will move on to Lake Decatur, where they will fish head to head in a two-day seeded elimination tournament. Tomorrow's semi-final round will include two one-on-one match-ups, and the two winners of those matches will compete for the All Star title on Sunday.

Neither Evers nor DeFoe opted to say much about yesterday's patterns. Today's competition is on the same waters, which fished tough yesterday. Evers brought in the lone limit, and only DeFoe and Aaron Martins, who is currently in 3rd place, brought in four fish. Six of the 12 anglers brought in one or less fish from the first day of competition.