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For Edwin Evers, the 2013 Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake couldn’t come at a better time. “For the most part, I feel like I’m making smart decision on the water at this point in my career,” he explained. “In years past, I’ve had some really good finishes but I’ve also been stubborn and had a couple bombs.”Evers has indeed been the model of consistency for the past three seasons. Since 2010, the Oklahoma pro has fished a total of 27 B.A.S.S. tournaments at the Classic, Elite Series, or Bassmaster Open level. He has recorded just two finishes lower than 60th place, with a 62nd place finish on Pickwick in 2011 and a 63rd place finish on Douglas Lake this past Elite Series season.During that same span, he has notched 15 finishes inside the top 20 that include eight top 10 finishes, two 2nd place finishes, and an Elite Series victory in 2011. Evers has also recorded back-to-back 2nd place finishes at Toyota Trucks All-Star Week, and he finished in 2nd place in the 2010 Toyota Tundra Angler Of the Year race.With seven career B.A.S.S. victories over the past decade, Evers has proven that he knows how to close out tournaments, but he’s still frustrated with some of the opportunities that he has left on the table. “My drive to win is pretty darn strong,” he stated. “At times, I feel that my drive to win causes me to be a little too intense. It all comes from the fact that I want to be better. There are things that I haven’t accomplished, and I want to reach the goals and expectations that I’ve made for myself.“There’s such a fine line between winning and not winning,” Evers continued. “The frustrating thing is that it can be just a single bite that makes all the difference. You don’t realize it until the event is over, but it’s often a bite that you missed or a fish that you lost on the first or second day of the tournament that ends up costing you the victory. The close calls probably fester inside me a little bit more than they should. I’m just not able to forget about things very easily.”Evers isn’t shy about stating the fact that a Classic win in his home state would be a career defining accomplishment that would be made even sweeter by the fact that his entire family will be there to witness it. “It would be the neatest thing in the world,” Evers said. “All my family is going to be there from my dad, to my wife and kids, my mom, my sisters, my in-laws, and a ton of friends. It would be a big deal for me.

Cool, calm and collected are not the words to describe all of Jack Link’s Major League Fishing anglers during the second episode of The General Tire Summit Cup, which will air in primetime today at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on Outdoor Channel.Tempers get short on more than one occasion as eight Major League Fishing anglers tackle Chautauqua Lake in an effort to advance past the Elimination Round.Edwin Evers, Kelly Jordon, Jeff Kriet, Aaron Martens, Ish Monroe, Takahiro Omori, Skeet Reese and Dean Rojas compete in this Day 2 of opening-round competition. On Day 1 (Episode 1 on Outdoor Channel), Mike Iaconelli, Denny Brauer, Greg Hackney and Shaw Grigsby advanced on the next round.The Summit Cup was filmed on Chautauqua Lake in Western New York and tests the skills of the anglers as they compete on a designated, roughly 2,000-acre zone. The anglers were not aware that Chautauqua Lake would be the venue until three days before the event began. In accord with Major League Fishing rules, the anglers were not allowed to practice or receive advance information on the venue or fishing conditions.“This is a terrific episode. Some anglers’ fuses are a little short. And that can be understandable, because we put these guys in some tough situations, and every decision is important. One day with no practice can put folks on edge,” said Major League Fishing Commissioner Don Rucks.The Summit Cup will air six times per week during the first quarter of 2013 on Outdoor Channel, America’s Leader In Outdoor TV. The Championship Round also will air on February 9 at 1 p.m. ET/Noon CT on the NBC network. Subsequent to its airing on NBC, the championship round will re-air on Outdoor Channel the following week. For access to Outdoor Channel’s program schedule, please visit:http://outdoorchannel.com/Schedule.aspx.

Last time I mentioned a new stat I've come up with to assess angler performance. I think it's better than the "average finish" stat I calculated a few weeks ago insofar as it's more fair.Average finish doesn't give an angler any bonus for completely dominating the field in a tournament. If you win by 10 pounds or one ounce, you get the same credit. Likewise, if you finish 25th, but are actually just a few pounds out of first or just ounces out of 18th or wherever, you don't get credit for that, either.And that's unjust. If you dominate, there should be a way to account for that, and if the margin between you and the anglers ahead of you is slim, but you're bunched together with a lot of other anglers having a similar performance, you shouldn't take a big hit just because you were an ounce or two lighter than the other guys.The real problem is the "cut." Since the Elite field is cut in half after two days and to the top 12 after three, everyone's not given the same opportunity to fish and impact their standing. You could be an ounce outside the cut (it happens all the time), but it might as well be 10 pounds. Until the day when cuts are eliminated (and that may never come), we need a better system for assessing performance than average finish.I think I found it.I call it BAXAB (nice palindrome, huh?) and it stands for bassing average times average bass. To get the score, I take an angler's bassing average (the average number of bass he brings to the scales each day he competes) and multiply it by the size of his average bass as a percentile of the field's average bass. Finally, you divide by the league BA to get a score that centers around 1.0. Any angler with a score higher than 1.0 is above average; any angler with a score lower than 1.0 is below average.Confused? Yeah, that could have gone better. Let me explain with an example.

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