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“There’s still a lot of fishing left to go,” he said, noting that the post-season points adjustment makes it possible to overcome an otherwise large deficit. “It’s unfortunate for Skeet, but that’s how it is.” Indeed, while he’s anxious to get back to the Classic, it’s the AOY title that motivates him the most, whether it happens this year or down the road.
Back on Track – On Two Tours
Last year was just a bump in the road, Evers claimed.
“It was just one of those years,” he said. “It wasn’t meant to be. I’m just glad I’m fishing good again.”
Good indeed. He’s earned a check in all five Elite Series tournaments, finishing no worse than 25th – his two worst tournaments were the California events to start the year, 25th at the Delta and 23rd at Clear Lake – and making it through to Sunday at both Smith Mountain and Pickwick.
He claimed that he knew from the very first event that he was back on track. “On the first day at the Delta I didn’t fish very good,” he recalled. “But after that it’s been very good. I’ve had maybe three bad days. I’m just making good decisions. It’s not anything that I’m doing differently. I’m just more focused on getting the job done.”
While last year’s sour notes may have been influenced by factors beyond his control, he said that one factor within his that has benefitted him so far this year is his decision to be a two tour pro – fishing both the Elites and the FLW Tour.
“It’s probably not the smartest decision I’ve ever made,” he said. “I’m not gettting much practice. I had a day and a half at Table Rock, a day at Norman and maybe half a day at Tellico.” But then he reconsidered and stated that the increased time on the water has allowed him to fish more on instinct, adapting to the conditions rather than ruminating on each event for extended periods of time. If nothing else, it’s keeping him busy. “With the shortened season, I didn’t want to fish just eight events.”
With two events left to go in the FLW Tour season he’s in 98th overall due to a bomb at Table Rock, but he holds out hope that he’ll be able to make up enough ground to qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Lanier in August, which, if he also makes the BASS post-season would keep him busy through the summer.
A Few Disappointments
While Evers has been in the hunt consistently, he’s had a few stumbling blocks that prevented him from claiming his first Elite Series win since his victory on Erie in 2007.
“I want to win, that’s the bottom line,” he said.
At each tournament, he’s come up just a bit short. At Pickwick, where he came in 9th, he overestimated what his fish would weight. At Smith Mountain, where he ended up 7th, he didn’t really think he had a chance. “Skeet was just on a different class of fish,” he said.
At the most recent event at Guntersville, where he finished 19th, the frustrating game of musical chairs got to him. He was sharing a key area with anglers including Mark Davis, Paul Elias and Kenyon Hill. “I couldn’t get on anything I found,” he explained. Even when he developed a decent swimbait pattern, excecution problems prevented him from making it to Day Four. He lost two five-pounders on the third day of competition.
Still, for an angler who hasn’t hit his 36th birthday yet and claims to be improving exponentially every year, there’s always something to be excited about, whether it’s mastering the swimbait technique or conquering a new lake. The next one on the schedule, Clarks Hill, is one that he feels owes him another shot at a win.
“The last time we were there I was leading,” he recalled. “Then things fell apart the last day. It got calm and I didn’t make the right decisions. I’m real excited about that one, but I’m not thinking past it. You can jump ahead by any shape, form or fashion.”
The Points Shuffle
As noted above, Evers is still a fair distance behind Reese, 258 points to be exact. He has 1227 points. To put that in perspective, last year at this time he had only 931 and ended up with 1460 for the year.
While the gap between Reese and Evers is substantial, in some respects the more important numbers for Evers’ post-season chances are the differentials between him and the anglers behind him in the race. Specifically, there are five anglers within a hundred points of him. Bill Lowen, currently in 12th, is 135 back, and Jeff Kriet, in 13th, is 144 behind Evers. As for the Classic cut, which he seems all but assured to end up inside, he has a 260 point lead on Mark Tucker, almost the same distance that he sits from Reese.
As he said earlier, “There’s still a lot of fishing left to go.”
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