| |
| Ober Wins Stren Series Event On Lake Champlain |
Pro Jason Ober of Johnstown, Pa., caught a five-bass limit weighing 17 pounds, 4 ounces Saturday to win the Stren Series Northern Division tournament on Lake Champlain with a four-day total of 20 bass weighing 74-05. For his victory, Ober earned $25,000 cash and a $40,000 198VX Ranger boat powered by Yamaha.
"Oh my goodness, it's an absolutely awesome feeling; I'm overwhelmed," said Ober, who won the co-angler division of the Stren Series Southeast Division tournament on Santee Cooper earlier this year. "To compete with great pros like Mike Iaconelli, Pete Gluszek and Chris Baumgardner is such a privilege."
Ober opened the tournament in forth place Wednesday with five bass weighing 17-15 while fishing the north end of the lake. On Thursday he added another five bass weighing 21-01 using a topwater bait to target smallmouth on the flats to capture his lead. He then caught five bass weighing 18-01 on the north end of the lake Friday to make the crucial top 10 cut in second place.
Ober stayed in the top-four throughout the tournament, but credits his co-angler for much of his success today.
"Today I caught several on a topwater bait, but my co-angler really helped me out by giving me a drop shot," Ober said. "Drop-shotting a Speed Craw sealed the deal. I caught two fish at a quarter till 2 this afternoon, and still had to leave 30 minutes for the run back."
Ober said he caught his fish on a crankbait in the top of the grass in about 12 feet of water earlier in the week. "I struggled and rebounded," Ober said. "The conditions had to be just right to be able to use a topwater bait, and I had to wait until the right time to use it and get in as many casts as I could. I had to change things up today, and it paid off."
Rounding out the top five pros are Chris Baumgardner of Gastonia, N.C. (20 bass, 73-15, $8,082, plus $5,000 Ranger bonus); John Voyles of Petersburg, Ind. (20 bass, 63-11, $7,274); Gregg Seal of Eldred, Pa. (20 bass, 62-14, $6,466); and Scott Lakey of Augusta, Mich. (20 bass, 62-03, $5,657).
George Lambeth of Thomasville, N.C., caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Pro Division Friday - a 5-pound, 7-ounce bass - that earned him the day's Snickers Big Bass award of $243.
Overall there were 48 bass weighing 139 pounds, 14 ounces caught by 10 pros Saturday. The catch included 9 five-bass limits.
Thomas Shafer of Pine City, N.Y., won the Co-angler Division and $5,000, including a 198VX Ranger boat, with a four-day total of 20 bass weighing 62-01.
"I used a variety of baits and switched up throughout the days," Shafer said. "I started out on a topwater bait today, but that wasn't working well, so I went to a drop-shot for the better part of the day, and that's what I caught all my fish on."
Shafer caught five bass weighing 16-04 Wednesday while fishing 2 miles north of his area Saturday with pro Gregg Seal of Eldred, Pa., to open the tournament in second place. He then caught five bass weighing 15-12 Thursday using tube jigs and drop shots while fishing with pro Randy Yarnall of Womelsdorf, Pa., to capture his lead. On Friday he added five more bass weighing 10-09 to make the top 10 cut in second place while fishing the inland sea with pro Rex Johnsonbaugh of Altoona, Pa. Finally, on Saturday, he sealed the win with a five-bass catch weighing 19-08 while fishing a drop-shot with pro Jason Ober of Johnstown, Pa.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Chris Girouard of Epsom, N.H. (20 bass, 56-05, $3,391); Micah Frazier of Newnan, Ga. (20 bass, 55-08, $2,756); Jeff Zeisner of Arva, Ontario (20 bass, 53-09, $2,120); and David Roberts of Sunderland, Mass. (18 bass, 51-05, $1,696).
Scott Wilson of Boyds, Md., caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Friday - a 5-pound, 15-ounce bass - that earned him the day's Snickers Big Bass award of $128.
Overall there were 44 bass weighing 122 pounds, 12 ounces caught by 10 co-anglers Saturday. The catch included 8 five-bass limits.
The next Stren Series Northern Division event, hosted by French Creek Marina, will be held Aug. 20-23 on 1000 Islands in Clayton, N.Y. Boats will launch from French Creek Marina in Clayton and the final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart located at 20823 NY State Route in Watertown.
The top 40 pros from each division will advance to the $1 million Stren Series Championship in Branson, Mo., Nov. 5-8 for a shot at $140,000. The highest-finishing pro from each division at the championship will also earn a spot in the $2 million 2009 Forrest Wood Cup, where they will compete against top pros from the Wal-Mart FLW Tour�, Wal-Mart FLW Series�, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League� and TBF (The Bass Federation) for bass fishing's biggest prize - $1 million.
Tournament pros aren't the only ones winning big this season. With the introduction of FLW Fantasy Fishing�, FLW Outdoors� offers anyone the opportunity to enter for their chance to land the catch of a lifetime with the opportunity to win $7.3 million in cash and prizes. Players can become a virtual pro angler by signing up for Player's Advantage, providing them with exclusive insider information that could guide them to a $100,000 victory at every Wal-Mart FLW Tour� stop and the Forrest Wood Cup. Player's Advantage will give them an edge over the competition and increase their shot for a $1 million cash grand prize that will be awarded to the FLW Fantasy Fishing cumulative points winner. Those who visit FantasyFishing.com today can sign up for Player's Advantage and FLW Outdoors will include a $15 Wal-Mart gift card.
The top 40 co-anglers from each Stren Series division will also advance to the championship, where they will fish for as much as $70,000. The highest-finishing co-angler from each division at the championship will then advance to the 2008 Forrest Wood Cup.
FLW Outdoors historically maintains a 98 percent live release rate in all of its bass tournaments.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2008 alone the organization is offering more than 90,000 anglers the chance to win over $40 million through 230 tournaments in 10 circuits targeting bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass. FLW Outdoors is also taking fishing mainstream with the largest cash awards in the history of fantasy sports, $7.3 million.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player's Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com. |
Back To Top
|
| Canterbury Wins Duracell Rookie of the Year Title |
DETROIT (July 12, 2008) - Odenville, Ala., native Scott Canterbury, who made his mark in the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League before qualifying for the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, won the 2008 Duracell Rookie of the Year award with 817 points over six qualifying events.
With those 817 points, Canterbury also qualified for the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup by finishing the season ranked in the top 40 overall. He was followed in the Duracell Rookie of the Year standings by pro Greg Vinson of Wetumpka, Ala., with 789 points; pro Kyle Mabrey of McCalla, Ala., with 770 points; pro Rob Digh of Denver, N.C., with 760 points; and pro Keith Combs of Del Rio, Texas, who made the top-10 cut Friday and could finish the season with as many as 729 points. For winning Duracell Rookie of the Year, Canterbury earned $1,000 and a year's supply of Duracell batteries.
"Winning rookie of the year was a goal I had at the very start," Canterbury said. "It's an awesome accomplishment. It's been a long journey to get to this point, and now I'm looking forward to fishing the Forrest Wood Cup."
Canterbury started the FLW Tour season off with a dismal 158th-place effort on Lake Toho in Kissimmee, Fla. After Toho, he rebounded nicely with back-to-back top-10 finishes on Lewis Smith Lake in Jasper, Ala., and Lake Norman in Charlotte, N.C. In those two tournaments alone, Canterbury earned $91,000 - finishing second and third respectively. At the Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake, the rookie pro took 64th place and a check worth $10,000. He earned a 69th-place finish at the Fort Loudoun-Tellico lakes in Knoxville, Tenn., and wrapped up the qualifying season with a 93rd-place finish on the Detroit River in Detroit.
In roughly a month, Canterbury will head to Columbia, S.C., for the no-entry-fee Forrest Wood Cup presented by BP and Castrol on Lake Murray. There he will face 76 other qualifiers from the FLW Tour, FLW Series, Stren Series Championship, BFL All-American and TBF National Championship for the sport's biggest award - $1 million. For a complete list of Forrest Wood Cup qualifiers, visit FLWOutdoors.com.
Last year's Duracell Rookie of the Year, Bryan Thrift, finished fifth in the Land O'Lakes Angler of the Year race with a total of 966 points. The Duracell Rookie of the Year title is determined by the total accumulated points from six regular-season events. Two hundred points are awarded for a win, 199 for second, 198 for third, and so on.
Tournament anglers aren't the only ones winning big this season. With the introduction of FLW Fantasy Fishing�, FLW Outdoors� offers anyone the opportunity to enter for their chance to land the catch of a lifetime with the opportunity to win $7.3 million in cash and prizes. Players can become a virtual pro angler by signing up for Player's Advantage, providing them with exclusive insider information that could guide them to a $100,000 victory at every Wal-Mart FLW Tour� stop and the Forrest Wood Cup. Player's Advantage will give them an edge over the competition and increase their shot for a $1 million cash grand prize that will be awarded to the FLW Fantasy Fishing cumulative points winner. Those who visit FantasyFishing.com today can sign up for Player's Advantage and FLW Outdoors will include a $15 Wal-Mart gift card.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2008 alone the organization is offering more than 90,000 anglers the chance to win over $40 million through 230 tournaments in 10 circuits targeting bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass. FLW Outdoors is also taking fishing mainstream with the largest cash awards in the history of fantasy sports, $7.3 million.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player's Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.
|
Back To Top
|
| Stren Series North Goes to Champlain |
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y.� (June 25, 2008) - The $6.5 million Stren Series�is headed to Lake Champlain July 16-19 for a $275,225 bass tournament. As many as 400 pros and co-anglers from 26 states will be competing in the first Northern Division tournament of the season for top awards of $65,000 and $35,000, respectively.
"When I won in September, it was a different time of year; we seem to be going to Champlain a lot of different times, which is neat because you get to see a lot of the different movements of the largemouth and smallmouth," said Pete Gluszek of Franklinville, N.J., who won the Stren Series Northern Division tournament on Lake Champlain in 2006 and Stren Series Northern Division tournament on the Hudson River in 2007. "In July, the spawn is going to be wrapping up on the north end, so the smallmouth will just about all be off the beds; we're going to have kind of a post spawn pattern developing. Down in the southern end of the lake in the Ticonderoga area, the spawn will have been over for a month or more, and the fish are going to be more advanced into their summertime patterns."
Gluszek expects anglers to bring in as much as 16-17 pounds a day to win, and predicts they will be using a variety of techniques to catch their bass, depending on their individual strengths. He plans to target smallmouth, while also fishing for largemouth on the north end of the lake. Gluszek describes the south end of Lake Champlain as a "flipper's paradise," where anglers who prefer to fish for largemouth in the grass will probably go.
"It's becoming more popular to run south on the lake, but it's a big gamble, since you have a long boat ride and rough water; there's been a few tournament wins down there, so some guys will go down to Ticonderoga for largemouth that are in their summertime mode and very aggressive," Gluszek said. "Up north, your smallmouth are going to be just coming off the beds and spread out, and the largemouth are going to be kind of doing the same thing. In my mind, it's going to be about covering a lot of water and staying with the schools of fish, because they're so spread out. By staying north, you're a little more conservative, because you can fish wherever you want to fish-the weather isn't as big of a factor."
"As always on Lake Champlain, it will be one of the most exciting places to fish--you can win with largemouth; you can win with smallmouth; you can win on the north end or the south end," Gluszek added.
Anglers will take off from Dock Street Landing located at 5 Dock St. in Plattsburgh, N.Y., at 6:30 each morning. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday's weigh-ins also will be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday's weigh-in will be held at Crete Memorial Civic Center located at Route 9 N. Beach Road in Plattsburgh, N.Y., beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The Lake Champlain Stren Series tournament is hosted by Plattsburgh, N.Y.
Pros will fish for a top award of $25,000 plus a $40,000 198VX Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor and Lowrance electronics if contingency guidelines are met. Ranger will award another $3,000 to the winner if he or she is a participant in the Ranger Cup program. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $1,500 to the highest-finishing participant in the contingency program. Yamaha or Evinrude will match 50 percent of Ranger Cup earnings if "Powered by Yamaha" or "Powered by E-Tec" guidelines are met.
Co-anglers will cast for a top award of $5,000 plus a $30,000 Ranger boat and trailer if contingency guidelines are met.
Competitors will also be vying for valuable points that could earn them a trip to the $1 million Stren Series Championship on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Mo., Nov. 5-8 for a shot at $140,000 in the Pro Division and $70,000 in the Co-angler Division. After four qualifying events are complete in each Stren Series division - Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western -� the top 40 pros and 40 co-anglers based on Angler of the Year points standings from each division will advance to the championship. The top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers from each division will also qualify for the 2009 Wal-Mart FLW Tour� and Wal-Mart FLW Series�, bass fishing's top professional circuits, where they can compete for a share of $19.5 million. The highest-finishing pro and co-angler from each division at the Stren Series Championship will also qualify for the $2 million 2009 Forrest Wood Cup, where pros will fish for as much as $1 million - the most lucrative award in bass fishing.
In Stren Series competition, pros supply the boats, fish from the front deck against other pros and control boat movement. Co-anglers fish from the back deck and compete against other co-anglers. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points that determine angler standings. Two hundred points are awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 points for third, and so on. The full field competes on days one, two and three, with the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers advancing to day four based on their three-day accumulated weight. Winners are determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from all four days.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2008 alone the organization is offering more than 90,000 anglers the chance to win over $40 million through 230 tournaments in 10 circuits targeting bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass. FLW Outdoors is also taking fishing mainstream with the largest cash awards in the history of fantasy sports, $7.3 million.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player's Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.
Total awards are based on a full field of 200 boats in every tournament. |
Back To Top
|
|
|
