Kent Ware’s professional expertise is in saltwater game fish, but his passion is in freshwater – as in tournament bass fishing.

He has taken time off from his day job this week to fish the FLW EverStart Series Southeast Division tournament on Lake Seminole, returning to the EverStart Series after a layoff of a couple of years. Upon his return to EverStart in January, Ware finished sixth in the tournament at Lake Okeechobee to open the season.

Ware, of Wadmalaw island, S.C., began practicing in Seminole over the weekend, a little while after arriving Saturday and a good bit on Sunday.

“It’s going to be an interesting tournament,” he said. “The fish have been bedding for about six weeks and the ones left up are pretty ragged out. They’ve already expended a lot of energy laying eggs and the water is pretty warm, so a lot of fish are moving back to the river channel.”

And, he said, they have been hammered, too.

“There have been a lot of tournaments here on Seminole lately and a lot of the shallow fish have been beat up pretty bad,” he said.

“I’ve caught a few fish each day, but nothing big. I have not seen any big fish at all. Most are 2 to 3 pounds, nice tournament fish. I would be more comfortable if I could find some post spawn fish. Most of the fish I am seeing up on the beds are males,” he said. “But, we’ve got a new moon coming so that may change things.”

Ware last fished the EverStart Series in 2009, taking time off from the travel to work at his job with the U.S. Fish Hatchery at Bears Bluff, S.C, and concentrate on fishing the Fishers of Men tournament series with his wife and daughter.

“I have a real job so I had to back off the BFLs. My wife and I are pretty active in the Fishers of Men trail and I fish some tournaments with my daughter,” Ware said. “My wife and I fished the Fishers of Men nationals at Guntersville last year and did pretty well and my daughter Emily and I fished the Fishers of Men Santee Legacy tournament last weekend and came in second.” Ware and his wife Shannon finished second in that FOM National Championship at Guntersville.

Ware works with redfish, sturgeon, cobia and American shad at the hatchery at Bears Bluff.

“We’ve been raising redfish and stocking them around Wadmalaw Island, a half a million a year out of the hatchery, in partnership with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. They provide the brood stock,” he said. “We keep a real close eye on genetics so we make sure we are putting fish back that are comparable with the wild fish. Then we go back a year later and do sampling to determine what kind of contribution we are making.”

While he has had to draw back from major tournament fishing during the downturn in the economy, Ware has kept his bass fishing instincts honed in Fishers of Men and other local and regional tournaments and his showing in January on Okeechobee is proof he could make some noise on the EverStart circuit this year.

 

FLW EverStart Series – Southeast Division

Mar 22-24, 2012

Lake Seminole

Bainbridge Boat Basin

www.flwoutdoors.com