Berhorst Wins EverStart Series Central Division Event on Lake Of The Ozarks
OutdoorHub 09.16.12
Dennis Berhorst of Holts Summit, Mo., weighed a five-bass limit totaling 14 pounds, 9 ounces Saturday to win the EverStart Series Central Division event on Lake of the Ozarks with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 47 pounds, 8 ounces. For his victory, Berhorst earned $25,578 and a Ranger Z518 with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor.
“I caught every one of my fish this week flipping docks with a green pumpkin-colored Zoom Brush Hog,” said Berhorst, who now has 8 career tournament wins with FLW. “The area of the lake that I was fishing in was Gravois arm. I picked out the bigger creeks and I fished the small pockets in the creeks. I was targeting shallow docks on high spots, and I was flipping for all three days. None of my fish came from deeper than 10 feet.
“The weather really didn’t have much of an effect on me this week,” Berhorst continued. “The fish were suspended right underneath the big floats on the pontoons, so I was fishing right up inside them. A lot of people wanted the sunshine to help catch them, but it didn’t affect me so that’s what I stuck with for all three days.”
Tournament success on is nothing new for Berhorst – he now has nine top-10 finishes on Lake of the Ozarks alone, including a 7th place finish in the BFL Ozark division super tournament held here last weekend.
“I wasn’t even sure that I would be able to catch five each day,” he continued. “You’d have a few good days of practice, and then you’d have a real bad day. I had a couple of bad days even in the BFL last weekend. I just kept my head up and fished a lot of areas. I concentrated on 10 feet of water or less, and I actually caught a lot of my fish suspended right at that 10 foot depth. I really just concentrated on fishing the way that I like to fish.”
The top 10 pros finished the tournament in:
1st: Dennis Berhorst, Holts Summit, Mo., 15 bass, 47-8, $25,578 + Ranger Z518 with 200-horsepower outboard
2nd: Tim Gaskill, Edwardsville, Ill., 15 bass, 45-7, $8,770
3rd: Jeremy Lawyer, Sarcoxie, Mo., 15 bass, 44-9, $7,308
4th: Kettle Brand Chips pro Dan Morehead, Paducah, Ky., 15 bass, 44-0, $6,577
5th: Robbie Dodson, Harrison, Ark., 15 bass, 43-5, $5,846
6th: Andre Dickneite, Freeburg, Mo., 15 bass, 40-8, $5,116
7th: Guido Hibdon, Sunrise Beach, Mo., 14 bass, 36-13, $4,385
8th: Ray Meredith, Smiths Grove, Ky., 14 bass, 36-11, $3,654
9th: Mark Wiese, High Ridge, Mo., 15 bass, 36-2, $2,923
10th: Tom Silber, Labadie, Mo., 13 bass, 34-15, $2,192
Complete results can be found at FLWOutdoors.com.
Dickneite caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Pro Division Friday – a 5-pound, 4-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s EverStart Series Big Bass award of $188.
Mark Howard of Mesquite, Texas, won the Co-angler Division and a Ranger Z117 with an Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor with a three-day total of 11 bass weighing 31 pounds, 8 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Mark Howard, Mesquite, Texas, 11 bass, 31-8, Ranger Z117 with 90-horsepower outboard
2nd: Jeff Risbeck, Norwalk, Va., 10 bass, 30-1, $3,529
3rd: Jake Seifert, Jefferson City, Mo., 10 bass, 25-11, $3,137
4th: Roger Olson Jr., Eagle River, Wis., 10 bass, 25-8, $2,745
5th: Arnold Payne Jr., Noblesville, Ind., nine bass, 25-3, $2,353
6th: Rick Krassinger, House Springs, Mo., eight bass, 20-11, $1,960
7th: Jeff Johnson, Ash Flat, Ark., eight bass, 19-15, $1,568
8th: Bill Brinkley Jr., Barnhart, Mo., eight bass, 17-12, $1,176
9th: Mike Clark, Ames, Iowa, 10 bass, 17-8, $784
10th: Garry Kincaid, Martinsville, Ind., eight bass, 14-3, $627
Olson Jr. caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Thursday – a 5-pound, 12-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s EverStart Series Big Bass award of $125.
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 the Ouachita River in Monroe, La., Nov. 1-4.
