BAINBRIDGE, Ga. – The top 240 bass anglers from four Red Man Tournament Trail divisions will visit Lake Seminole Oct. 26-28 in hopes of winning up to $50,000 in prizes and a spot in the $250,000 Red Man All-American Championship.
Contestants at the Lake Seminole Regional Championship will compete in two divisions – boater and co-angler – for the first time in the Red Man Tournament Trail’s 18-year history. The winner of the Boater Division will receive a new Chevy truck and a fully rigged Ranger 518 VX boat. The winning co-angler will take home a fully rigged Ranger R81 boat.
The top eight finishers in each division will advance to the 2001 All-American Championship in May on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Ark. Once there, boaters will cast for $100,000 cash while co-anglers fish for $50,000 cash. All told, more than $5.7 million could be awarded across 22 divisions nationwide during the 2000 Red Man season.
Five regional championships will each advance eight boaters and co-anglers to the All-American. Four boaters and co-anglers will advance from a sixth regional, and the top three boaters and co-anglers in two Chevy Wild Card events will qualify for the All-American, yielding a field of 50 boaters and 50 co-anglers.
Weigh-ins at the Lake Seminole Regional on Thursday, Oct. 26, and Friday, Oct. 27, will take place at Jack Wingates Lunker Lodge in Bainbridge beginning at 3 p.m. The final weigh-in, which features the top eight competitors after two-days of preliminary competition, will be held at the lodge beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28.
The top 30 boaters and co-anglers from the Red Man Tournament Trail’s Bama, Gator, Piedmont and LBL Divisions qualify for the Lake Seminole Regional. Qualification is based on individual standings after five regular season events.
“Qualifying for the regional championship is no easy task,” said Dan Grimes, Red Man Tournament Trail director. “Anglers have to perform consistently well on different lakes under a variety of weather and water conditions to remain competitive throughout the season.”
The boater/co-angler format introduced by Red Man at the start of the 2000 season is reminiscent of the lucrative Wal-Mart FLW Tour and other pro/am style events, which have grown increasingly popular with bass fishing enthusiasts. Under the old Red Man format, anglers shared equal time at the front of the boat, picking fishing locations and running the trolling motor. Now, boaters fish from the front of the boat while co-anglers cast from the back seat.
Operation Bass, the company responsible for the Red Man Tournament Trail, was founded in 1979 on the principle that working anglers should be able to fish competitively without interfering with jobs and family. Red Man became the trail’s title sponsor in 1983. Wal-Mart announced that it has assumed title sponsorship of the tournament series for 2001 and will rename it the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League.
Click for the tournament field.