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OPTIMA® Batteries Pro Edwin Evers Takes Second Place at WABTA Rock Lake Event

Category: article

 Jun 19th, 2012 by OutdoorsFIRST 

Modified Jun 19th, 2012 at 12:00 AM

June 19, 2012 (MILWAUKEE) – When Edwin Evers saw the 2012 Bassmaster Elite Series would take him to Wisconsin for the first time, he jumped at the chance to support his nearby sponsor OPTIMA Batteries as well as local grassroots tournament fishing.  On Saturday, June 16, Evers teamed up with Johnson Controls senior manufacturing engineer Keith Vogel to finish 2nd out of 52 teams in the Wisconsin Alliance of Bass Tournament Anglers event on Rock Lake in Lake Mills, Wis.

	Keith Vogel and Edwin Evers with their second place plaques.

“It was quite the experience fishing in a club team tournament again,” said Evers.  “The club put on a great event, and I couldn’t have had a better partner in Keith.  Neither of us had ever been on the lake, so we just decided to go out and have a fun day of fishing.  It was a great way to kick off my time here in Wisconsin.”

Evers and Vogel were brought into the event by OPTIMA Batteries and its Milwaukee-based parent company, Johnson Controls as a way to celebrate the return of Tour-level bass fishing events to Wisconsin and thank the membership of WABTA for their role in helping to pass the 2011 law that allows culling in bass tournaments. 

A relatively tough bite left the more than one hundred participants impressed with Evers’ fish catching ability on an unfamiliar body of water. 

“The members of WABTA are some of the best fishermen in Wisconsin, but Edwin showed us all that the guys who have proven themselves at the elite level in our sport are there for a reason – they can flat out catch fish,” said WABTA tournament director Kevin Manser.  “More importantly, we appreciate OPTIMA’s support of our organization and Edwin’s time spent with us on Rock Lake.  It was a fantastic experience for our members and the greater fishing community in southeastern Wisconsin.”

Evers and Vogel decided to donate their winnings to a local charity, supporting a WABTA member’s family friend who is suffering with cystic fibrosis, which was greeted by a round of applause from the appreciative crowd at Saturday’s weigh-in at Sandy Beach. 

WABTA is part of OPTIMA Batteries’ True Blue contingency program, which rewards grassroots tournament anglers for using OPTIMA BlueTop batteries in their tournament boats.  For more information on this program, please visit www.optimabatteries.com/trueblue.

Evers is headed to La Crosse, Wis. for the Bassmaster Elite Series Mississippi River Rumble June 21-24, then off to the Green Bay Challenge June 28-July 1.  These are the first Elite Series events to ever be held in the state of Wisconsin. 

For more information on the tournament, including full results and pictures, please visit http://wabta.org/.   

About OPTIMA® Batteries
OPTIMA® YellowTop®, RedTop® and BlueTop® batteries are available through leading battery distributors globally. When looking for OPTIMA Batteries consumers should look for the unique, colored-top and SIX PACK™ design which OPTIMA is known throughout the world. In 2012, OPTIMA added to its product line with the innovative OPTIMA® Chargers Digital 1200 Battery Charger for all automotive and marine batteries. To find out more information or purchase OPTIMA products consumers may visit www.optimabatteries.com. Consumers can also call 1-888-8OPTIMA (1-888-867-8462) for additional information.

OPTIMA Batteries are manufactured by Johnson Controls, Inc. Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI – News) is the global leader that brings ingenuity to the places where people live, work and travel. By integrating technologies, products and services, we create smart environments that redefine the relationships between people and their surroundings. Our team of more than 150,000 employees creates a more comfortable, safe and sustainable world through our products and services for more than 200 million vehicles, 12 million homes and one million commercial buildings. Our commitment to sustainability drives our environmental stewardship, good corporate citizenship in our workplaces and communities, and the products and services we provide to customers. For additional information, please visit http://www.johnsoncontrols.com.