EVERS FINDS A LIMIT

 Story and photos by Matt Pangrac

Decatur, IL - It’s not very often that Kevin VanDam admits to the fact that his confidence level wasn’t at 100% during a competition day, but that was case on the first day of Toyota Trucks All-Star Week on Lake Shelbyville.

The Central Illinois fishery kicked out just one limit on Thursday, and only half of the 12 angler field boated multiple keepers.  VanDam’s two keepers that weighed a total of 4-0 were good enough for a 6th place finish. 

Oklahoma’s Edwin Evers solved the mystery, exciting the large crowd gathered at Nelson Park in Decatur, Illinois for the weigh-in. Evers’ 13-1 limit weighed more than the combined efforts of the 7th through 12th place finishers. 

Other than Evers, only Ott DeFoe, who brought in four keepers weighing 11-3, was able to break the 10 pound mark. Aaron Martens joined Evers and DeFoe as the only angler to cross the stage with at least four bass.   In total, the 12 All-Star week competitors combined to weigh-in 25 keepers on Thursday.  

All 12 will again fish on Lake Shelbyville on Friday, and the field will cut to the top four remaining anglers who will be seeded and compete in a bracket style elimination on Lake Decatur on Saturday and Sunday.  

Here’s what some of the All-Stars had to say about Thursday on Lake Shelbyville: 

1st Place: Edwin Evers (13-1)
The best thing that happened during the day was….
“Catching my first fish.  During practice, I caught one doing the same thing but I really didn’t think much about it at the time.  The first keeper that I caught today really clued me in and I just started running that pattern a bunch.”

The most frustrating part of the day was…
“Fishing for miles without getting a bite.  I fished a lot of the ‘right looking’ stuff and never got a single bite.”  

The most exciting moment of the day was….
“Catching that four pounder.  I had lost one on the previous cast, and when I hooked the big one it got wrapped up and I thought that I was going to lose it.  I managed to get it in the boat and that was a pretty exciting deal.” 

The most important lesson learned was….
“That I need to just keep doing what I’m doing. I ended up catching seven keepers today.”

2nd Place: Ott DeFoe (11-3)
The best thing that happened during the day was….
“Right before I caught my first three keepers, I was going down the bank thinking, ‘I’ve been out here for two hours and I’ve only caught two little ones.  It’d be nice just to catch something to keep my head in the game.’

“The best thing was that I was able to get each of those three keepers out of the cover that they got hung up in.  The biggest one hit two cranks in and was instantly stuck in a log.  I thought that it was maybe a two pounder, and it came off of the wood and jumped.  By then, it was worn out and I just reached down and picked it up.”

The most frustrating part of the day was….
“Losing one keeper.” 

The most surprising thing about the day was….
“Catching three good keepers in 15 minutes out of the area that where I caught them.”

The most important lesson learned was….
“That there are probably a lot more fish than I originally thought in that area.” 

3rd Place: Aaron Martens (7-7)
The best thing that happened during the day was….
“Catching a three pounder.  I’m kind of happy, but I’m also irritated because I had like 17 pounds in practice.  I think that I was too efficient and stuck all the good ones.  I ended up catching a lot of my fish today off of new stuff.” 

The most frustrating part of the day was….
“I probably re-tied 25 times today and three or four times I had to re-tie on back-to-back casts.  It’s pretty snaggy where I’m fishing.  I also lost a keeper with five minutes left and ended up throwing back a fish that was maybe a keeper.  I just couldn’t risk taking the one-pound penalty if it was short.” 

The most surprising thing about the day was….
“The number of boats out on the water. They were everywhere.” 

The most important lesson learned was….
“You can’t go back to the same areas and catch fish.” 

4th Place: Skeet Reese (5-11)
The best thing that happened during the day was….
“I caught a 3-10. I put my trolling motor in the water for the first stop of the morning and got a good bite.   I was pretty fired up over that fish because I knew that at least I wasn’t going to blank.  It was a great start for me.”

The most frustrating part of the day was….
“I only caught two.”

The most surprising thing about the day was….
“The amount of short fish that I caught.  I probably had 15 short fish with a bunch of 13 ½ inchers in there.”

The most important lesson learned was….
“That there really aren’t a lot of fish in the lake.” 

6th Place: Kevin VanDam (4-0)
Sum up your day in one sentence: “Not what I expected it to be.” 

Hypothetically, how well does Lake Shelbyville fit your style of fishing:  “It really should fit pretty well.  It’s a reservoir that has a lot of similar types of structure on it and it’s a lake that you can definitely pattern fish on.  It’s also not very big, so you can run around a lot. 

“Honestly, I expected that if I had a good day I might catch four or five and I’d only catch a couple if I had a bad day.  It would be easy to zero out here, but I know that I’m around fish because I had a decent practice.”

At any point in the day, was your confidence level at less than 100%?  “Yea, it was.  I didn’t catch my first keeper until 12:30, and at noon, I basically decided that I needed to hit one more place where I had a lot of confidence.  I caught one at the very next stop and that gave me a glimpse of what I was looking for.”

Mike Iaconelli (7th Place: 4-0) on hooking and landing a 50+ inch musky: “It came on a Rapala DT6 in a color that I designed.  It was a giant.  Normally in a tournament scenario, when you get one of those beasts, you instantly break it off.  It was the same crankbait that I’d been using since practice, so I had developed confidence in that bait.  I really took my time and got it back.  I caught a walleye, white bass, crappie – just about everything that swims in that lake today except keeper largemouth.

“The musky was over 50 inches.  I’ve caught big ones before at Lake Of the Woods and other places, and it was right up there with some of the biggest ones that I’ve ever caught.  I’d say it was over 30 pounds.  It was using 12-pound-test Berkley 100% Fluorocarbon line.”  

DAY ONE STANDINGS

Place	Name
		Fish	Weight
1	Edwin Evers	5	13- 1
2	Ott DeFoe	4	11- 3
3	Aaron Martens	4	7- 7
4	Skeet Reese	2	5-11
5	Todd Faircloth	3	4- 5
6	Kevin VanDam	2	4- 0
7	Michael Iaconelli	1	4- 0
8	Gerald Swindle	1	3-12
9	Matthew Herren	1	1-13
10	Brent Chapman	1	1- 9
11	Terry Scroggins	1	1- 6
12	Randy Howell