HUDSON RIVER TO HOST WAL-MART BASS FISHING LEAGUE NORTHEAST
DIVISION TOURNAMENT CATSKILL, N.Y. (July 12, 2005) -
The Northeast Division of the $8.4 million Wal-Mart Bass Fishing
League will visit the Hudson River near Catskill July 23 for
the third of five regular-season events. As many as 200 boaters
and 200 co-anglers are expected to compete in the tournament,
which will award as much as $39,000 in cash, including as much
as $5,500 to the Boater Division winner. Dutchman's Landing
in Catskill will host the takeoff and weigh-in at 5:45 a.m.
and 2 p.m., respectively. Anglers will compete for prize money
as well as points that count toward postseason competition.
Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns
points, with 200 points going to the winner, 199 for second,
198 for third, and so on except for the season-ending Super
Tournaments, which award 300 points to the winner, 299 points
for second, 298 for third, and so on. If the winner is a participant
in the Ranger Cup incentive program, he will receive a $1,000
bonus from Ranger Boats and $500 from Yamaha if his boat is
powered by Yamaha. (Ranger will award $500 to the highest-finishing
Ranger Cup participant if not the winner, and Yamaha will kick
in $250 if the boat is powered by Yamaha.) If the winning boater
uses only Garmin electronics during the event and at least one
product is a qualifying unit, Garmin will also award a $1,000
bonus. Bombardier will award $1,000 to the winning boater if
the winner's boat is equipped with a qualifying Evinrude Direct
Injection outboard. That's a potential top award of $8,500 for
anglers who meet contingency guidelines. The winning co-angler
will earn as much as $2,750 cash. The angler who catches the
biggest bass of the day in the Boater Division will earn as
much as $1,000, and the co-angler big-bass winner will earn
as much as $500. The top 40 boaters and co-anglers in each of
the BFL's 28 divisions at the end of the season are eligible
to advance to regional competition. Seven $110,000 regional
championships will each send six boaters and six co-anglers
to the 2006 All-American championship, which will feature a
$1 million purse and a top award as high as $140,000. Anglers
who compete in all five regular-season events within a division
but do not advance to regional competition are eligible to compete
in the Wild Card, which will also send six boaters and six co-anglers
to the All-American for a championship field of 48 boaters and
48 co-anglers. The top 40 Northeast Division boaters and co-anglers
will advance to the Kerr Lake Regional near Henderson, N.C.,
Oct. 18-22 and will compete against anglers from the Empire,
Mountain and Music City divisions for an All-American slot.
The top 40 anglers from each division may also advance to the
EverStart Series in 2006. Northeast Division anglers will next
visit the Potomac River in Marbury, Md., Aug. 27 for their fourth
regular-season event. A two-day Super Tournament, the division's
fifth and final event, will be held on Lake Hopatcong in Cedar
Knolls, N.J., Sept. 17-18. For more information or to enter
a tournament, call (270) 252-1000 or visit FLWOutdoors.com.
If the July 23 tournament is not yet full, entries will be accepted
at tournament registration, which will be held July 22 from
4 to 7 p.m. at the Wal-Mart located at 351 Fairview Ave. in
Greenport. Entry fees are $200 for boaters and $100 for co-anglers.
In BFL competition, boaters supply the boat and compete from
the front deck against other boaters. Co-anglers compete from
the back deck against other co-anglers. As the nation's leading
provider of affordable, close-to-home weekend tournaments, the
BFL is widely credited with opening competitive bass fishing
to the masses. It also serves as a steppingstone for anglers
who wish to advance to the EverStart Series and ultimately the
Wal-Mart FLW Tour - bass fishing's most lucrative tournament
series. Former BFL anglers who have become fishing superstars
on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour include Kellogg's pro Clark Wendlandt,
Ranger pro Tommy Biffle and four-time FLW Tour champion David
Fritts. Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest
L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing
League and seven other national tournament circuits offering
a combined $30 million in awards through 214 events in 2005.
The 27-year-old organization is the purveyor of America's largest
and most prestigious fishing tournaments, including the Wal-Mart
FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart
Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart
FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and Wal-Mart
FLW Redfish Series. Wal-Mart and many of America's largest and
most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament
trails. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour
in 1997 and today is the title sponsor of all FLW Outdoors events.
For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.
|