Rookie wins BASS Elite Series event

Rookie Casey Ashley of South Carolina Corrals First Bassmaster Elite Series Win at Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake



MONETA, Va. – With less than an hour remaining in the final day of competition, Casey Ashley of Donalds, S.C., boated two keeper fish on back-to-back casts. The weight of those two fish was enough to bring him victory on Sunday at the Blue Ridge Brawl presented by Advance Auto Parts on Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake.



The Bassmaster Elite Series rookie totaled 57 pounds, 3 ounces, over the four-day event, besting Terry Scroggins of San Mateo, Fla., by 2 pounds.



Just 23 years old and the youngest angler in the Elite Series field, Ashley clinched his first BASS victory and the $100,000 top prize despite struggling on the final-day.



Fishing fans can watch Ashley’s victory on The Bassmasters on ESPN 2 at 9 a.m. Saturday, June 16.



“I started feeling the pressure at 11 a.m. and by 2 o’clock I really started sweating,” said Ashley, whose victory earned him valuable points toward qualifying for the 2008 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Hartwell, the South Carolina fishery he considers his home lake. “I thought I blew it until I caught two in a row there.”



Ashley started the tournament with a mediocre first day, finishing in 49th place. He captured the No. 2 spot Friday with the heaviest limit of the tournament: 22 pounds, 0 ounces. Saturday, he overtook the lead by a margin of nearly 5 pounds, then held on Sunday, persevering through hot weather and recreational boat traffic to bring in 9 pounds, 10 ounces, the third-lowest weight of the 12 Elite anglers on the final day of competition.



Primarily working a jig on rocky main-lake points and a finesse worm to docks, Ashley notched his fourth top-25 finish of the season. Sunday, he became the second rookie to win an Elite event. Rookie Derek Remitz of Madison, Ala., won the season-opening event on Texas’ Lake Amistad.



“I can’t even speak about it, I’m so excited,” said an elated Ashley, whose win moved him into a tie for first with Remitz in the Toyota Rookie of the Year standings. “I never thought I would win a tournament this year in my rookie season. I just wanted to qualify for next year.”



Scroggins took second with 55 pounds, 3 ounces. His final-day catch of 15 pounds, 5 ounces, was the best bag of the day. The 38-year-old has had a solid season so far, winning two Bassmaster Open tournaments, and he is now in seventh place in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings.



The five-time BASS winner worked a shaky head worm around points that featured brush and rocks on the final day. He landed eight to 10 keepers in the last hour of competition.



“I had the chance to make this tournament a little more interesting,” Scroggins said. “But I didn’t execute like I needed to. Anytime you finish second at an area that you’ve never been to, you have to be happy with it.”



Rounding out the top five were 2004 Classic champion Takahiro Omori of Emory, Texas, in third with 53 pounds, 15 ounces; Bassmaster Angler of the Year points leader Skeet Reese of Auburn, Calif., in fourth with 53 pounds, 3 ounces; and Morizo Shimizu of Osaka, Japan, in fifth with 52 pounds, 12 ounces.



Boyd Duckett of Demopolis, Ala., the reigning Classic champion who led the Blue Ridge Brawl for the first two days, finished sixth with 52 pounds, 7 ounces. In seventh with 51 pounds, 5 ounces, was Dean Rojas of Grand Saline, Texas, who went into the final day in second place.



Local favorite John Crews of Salem, Va., finished eighth with 50 pounds, 11 ounces.



The next tournament stop for the 108 Elite competitors is the Sooner Run presented by Longhorn Tobacco scheduled for June 21-24 on Oklahoma’s Grand Lake



Fishing fans can follow the action of Bassmaster Elite Series events on www.espnoutdoors.com.