OHIO RIVER TO HOST WAL-MART BASS FISHING LEAGUE BUCKEYE DIVISION
TOURNAMENT MAYSVILLE, Ky. (July 19, 2005) -
The Buckeye Division of the $8.4 million Wal-Mart Bass Fishing
League will visit the Ohio River near Maysville 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. Maysville River Park
in Maysville will host the takeoff and weigh-in at 5:30 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 Buckeye Division boaters and co-anglers
will advance to the Lake Cherokee Regional near Morristown,
Tenn., Oct. 4-8 and will compete against anglers from the Illini,
LBL and Piedmont divisions for an All-American slot. The top
40 anglers from each division may also advance to the EverStart
Series in 2006. Buckeye Division anglers will next visit Lake
Erie in Sandusky, Ohio 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 Erie in Sandusky, Ohio Sept.
10-11. 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 419 Market Square Drive in Maysville. 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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