EverStart Series Texas Division Opens on Lake Amistad
OutdoorHub 01.16.13
Low water levels, cold temperatures will play role
The EverStart Series is headed to Lake Amistad January 24-26 when as many as 300 pros and co-anglers take to the water for the first of four stops in the Texas Division.
“Water levels have been pretty down this year,” said FLW Tour pro Cody Bird of Granbury, Texas, who has more than $580,000 in career winnings with FLW. “I know they just got a little bit of rain down there, so that will help and may bring it up a little bit, but it’ll still be lower than last year. Sometimes the hydrilla grows real well when the lake is done, and it seemed that the bigger fish were in the hydrilla last year.
“The winter had been real mild up until Christmas,” Bird continued. “Since then, it’s been pretty cold down here. That’s pretty typical here in Texas, though. January and February are really our winter months. It’s day-to-day fishing in Texas during the winter. If we have a couple of warm days, the fish might pull up and the bite will be really good shallow. If it stays cold, though, it’ll be better fishing in the deeper stuff.”
Although he isn’t fishing the tournament this year, Bird did have advice for anglers that are – find the grass.
“Last year guys did real well in the grass,” Bird said. “If I were fishing this tournament, that’s how I’d attack it. I’d be targeting different depths with crankbaits along the grass-lines. Spinnerbaits and jerkbaits will produce real well this time of year as well. I’m not much of a jerkbait fisherman, but that’s a real good bait on Amistad. I’ve seen some monster bags come on a jerkbait there.”
Bird also suggested that if the bite was tough shallow, he would switch and move deep looking for deep structure, humps and drops. He predicted that quite a few fish weighed in would come on football-head-jigs and Carolina rigs.
“I figure that the weights will be pretty close to the same as last year,” Bird went on to say. “I think a guy that catches 45 to 48 pounds will make the cut, and the winner will probably have 51 to 54 pounds. We’ll probably see a few 25-pound bags weighed in as well.”
Anglers will take off from the East Diablo Launch Ramp located at Highway 90 W. in Del Rio, Texas, at 7:30 a.m. each day. Weigh-in will be held at the takeoff location on Thursday and Friday beginning at 3:30 p.m. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at Walmart located at 2410 Dodson Ave. in Del Rio beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
Pros will fish for a top award of $40,000 plus a Ranger Z518 with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. Co-anglers will cast for a top award consisting of a Ranger Z117 with 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $5,000 if Ranger Cup guidelines are met.
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, which allows them to fish the 2014 Forrest Wood Cup.
The EverStart Series tournament on Lake Amistad is being hosted by the Del Rio Chamber of Commerce.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWOutdoors.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the EverStart Series on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.
