SENECA LAKE TO HOST WAL-MART BASS FISHING LEAGUE EMPIRE DIVISION
TOURNAMENT ROMULUS, N.Y. (July 19, 2005) -
The Empire Division of the $8.4 million Wal-Mart Bass Fishing
League will visit Seneca Lake near Romulus July 30 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. Sampson State Park in
Romulus 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 Empire 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 Mountain,
Northeast 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. Empire Division anglers will next
visit 1000 Islands in Clayton Aug. 20 for their fourth regular-season
event. A two-day Super Tournament, the division's fifth and
final event, will be held on Lake Champlain near Ticonderoga
Sept. 24-25. For more information or to enter a tournament,
call (270) 252-1000 or visit FLWOutdoors.com. If the July 30
tournament is not yet full, entries will be accepted at tournament
registration, which will be held July 29 from 4 to 7 p.m. at
the Wal-Mart located at 990 Route 5 and 20 in Geneva. 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
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