GALLATIN, Tenn. – Basil Bacon of Springfield, Mo., landed five bass weighing 14 pounds, 2 ounces on Old Hickory Lake Saturday to win his first Wal-Mart FLW Tour event and $110,000 cash.
Bacon, a veteran bass pro, also earned 200 points in the Land O’ Lakes Angler-of-the-Year race to secure 64th place heading into the season’s final qualifying tournament, the $1 million Forrest Wood Open on Lake Champlain in Plattsburg, N.Y., June 19-22.
“I felt real good until I got to my first spot,” said Bacon, who has earned six Wal-Mart FLW Tour top-10 finishes in seven years. “The rain muddied it up real bad, and my heart sank. I thought I was done, but then I backed off, worked some things out and found some clear water.”
Bacon caught his bass on the coldest and shortest day of the tournament within two miles of Bull Creek Marina using a chartreuse buzzbait that he designed. He also caught fish flipping a green pumpkin bacon rind with a chartreuse tail.
He advanced to the 20-man semifinal round in fifth place Thursday with a two-day total of nine bass weighing 24 pounds, 14 ounces. He then qualified for the 10-man final round in third place Friday with five bass weighing 12 pounds. Anglers started the semifinal and final rounds from zero and fished for the heaviest five-bass limit.
Pat Fisher of Stone Mountain, Ga. (five bass, 13 pounds, 15 ounces, $40,000); Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich. (five bass, 12 pounds, 9 ounces, $24,500); Koby Kreiger of Osceola, Ind. (five bass, 12 pounds, 6 ounces, $20,000); and John Sappington of Wyandotte, Okla. (five bass, 11 pounds, 2 ounces, $17,500) rounded out the top five pros.
VanDam, the Wal-Mart FLW Tour’s reigning Angler of the Year, took control of the points race with his third-place finish. Given his smallmouth-fishing prowess, the Chevy pro may be a lock to become the tour’s first back-to-back Angler-of-the-Year winner. He leads the field with 914 points followed by Jay Yelas of Tyler, Texas, with 886 points and Bernie Schultz of Gainesville, Fla., with 857 points.
“I’m looking forward to Lake Champlain,” said VanDam, who earned his fifth top-10 performance in 11 Wal-Mart FLW Tour events. “I don’t really keep up with the Angler-of-the-Year race. I’m just going to go try to win that one. It’s definitely my kind of fishing.”
Competition began Wednesday with a 350-angler field comprising 175 pros who fish from the front deck and control boat movement and 175 co-anglers who fish from the back of the pros’ boats. Co-angler W.D. Hoot Gibson of Bryant, Ark., won $15,000 cash plus a $500 Snickers bonus Friday with four bass weighing 9 pounds, 14 ounces.
Following the Forrest Wood Open, 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.