POTOMAC RIVER TO HOST WAL-MART BASS FISHING LEAGUE NORTHEAST
DIVISION TOURNAMENT MARBURY, Md. (Aug. 17, 2005) -
The Northeast Division of the $8.4 million Wal-Mart Bass Fishing
League will visit the Potomac River near Marbury Aug. 27 for
the fourth 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. Anglers interested
in fishing the tournament may register online at FLWOutdoors.com
or by calling (270) 252-1000. If the tournament is not yet full,
entries will also be accepted at the pretournament registration
meeting, which will be held Aug. 26 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the
Charles County Government Building located at 200 Baltimore
St. in La Plata. Entry fees are $200 for boaters and $100 for
co-anglers. Small Wood State Park in Marbury will host the takeoff
and weigh-in at 6:30 a.m. and 2:30 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 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. A two-day Super Tournament, the Northeast 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
any BFL tournament, call (270) 252-1000 or visit FLWOutdoors.com.
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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