Fog delays takeoff by two hours
ROGERS, Ark. – After four days of stiff competition, the $1 million Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake boiled down to a showdown between a rookie and a veteran Saturday as Andre Moore of Scottsdale, Ariz., topped Randall Hutson of Washburn, Mo., by 13 ounces.
Moore’s final-round catch of five bass weighed 10 pounds, 6 ounces, while Hutson, a former Wal-Mart FLW Tour champion, managed to boat five bass weighing 9 pounds, 13 ounces.
“This is just unbelievable,” said Moore, who is fishing his first full Wal-Mart FLW Tour season. “It is such a confidence builder. I’ve had nothing but bad luck for four years. It’s truly incredible.”
Moore gained the upper hand and $210,000 cash with a prototype split-tail grub that he was flipping while sight-fishing in protected pockets outside Indian Creek. He entered Friday’s semifinal round of 20 pros in 14th place with a two-day total of eight bass weighing 16 pounds, 13 ounces.
After starting from zero with the rest of the field, he advanced to Saturday’s 10-man finale in sixth place with five bass weighing 7 pounds, 15 ounces. Anglers started from zero again Saturday after a two hour fog delay and fished for the heaviest five-bass limit.
Hutson earned $105,000 for his second place finish.
Rounding out the top five pros were Rob Harty of Sachse, Texas, (five bass, 9 pounds, $54,500); Kellogg’s pro and two-time Wal-Mart Open champion Clark Wendlandt of Cedar Park, Texas, (five bass, 8 pounds, 11 ounces, $39,000); and Yamaha pro Dean Rojas of Lake Havasu City, Ariz., (five bass, 8 pounds, 2 ounces, $33,500).
Competition began Wednesday with a 350-angler field comprising 175 pros who fish from the front of each boat and 175 co-anglers who fish from the back of each boat. Co-angler Bobby Hendricks of Bullard, Texas, won $40,000 cash plus a $500 Castrol bonus Friday with two bass weighing 4 pounds, 1 ounce.
The next stop on the seven-event, $5.1 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour is Old Hickory Lake near Gallatin, Tenn., May 15-18 where the winning pro will earn $110,000 cash.
At the end of the season, the top 48 pros and co-anglers advance to the Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship featuring a new, bracketed style format and an $800,000 cash purse. More than $300,000 was added to the championship purse for 2002. The winning pro receives $260,000 – the largest cash award of any professional bass fishing series.
Named after Ranger Boats founder, Forrest L. Wood, the Wal-Mart FLW Tour is run by FLW Outdoors, the world’s leading marketer of competitive fishing tournaments. The organization operates 170 tournaments through the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Circuit and Ranger M1. FLW Outdoors will award anglers up to $22 million in 2002.