SHREVEPORT, La. – One of Kansas’ own will fish for a share of $800,000 at the Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship presented by Castrol Sept. 11-14 on Cross Lake near Shreveport, La.
Brent Chapman of Shawnee, Kan., qualified as the No. 34 seed in a field of 48 Pro Division anglers and will fish head-to-head against the No. 15 seed, Fujifilm pro Wesley Strader of Spring City, Tenn., for the first two days of competition. The angler with the heaviest weight will advance to the semifinal round of 24 anglers.
Chapman finished in the top 25 twice in 2002, including a 21st-place effort on Alabama’s Wheeler Lake in February and an 18th-place finish on Tennessee’s Old Hickory Lake in May. In three years on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Chapman has earned more than $30,000. This is his first championship appearance. Strader fished his way to his first Wal-Mart FLW Tour victory in 2002 with a win on Arkansas’ Lake Ouachita. He also finished ninth at Wheeler Lake. Strader’s career earnings exceed $290,000 via the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series, the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, the Ranger M1 and the Texas Tournament Trail. This is his fourth championship appearance.
This year’s Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship features a setup unlike any bass-fishing championship in the history of the sport. The 48 pros who qualified based on their year-end point total will be seeded so fishing fans can keep up with their favorite anglers in a bracket-style competition similar to the NCAA basketball playoffs. The No. 1 seed will fish head-to-head against the No. 48 seed; the No. 2 seed will compete against the No. 47 seed and so on.
The top 48 pros will fish for a combined two-day weight to eliminate half the field for the semifinal round on day three. The 24 semifinalists will continue in head-to-head competition on day three, after which the field will be cut to 12 finalists.
On day four, the remaining 12 anglers will be reseeded according to their total weight from the first three days of competition. Anglers seeded No. 1 and No. 2 will compete for the first- and second-place cash awards of $260,000 and $55,000. The No. 3 and No. 4 seeds will compete for third- and fourth-place money of $34,500 and $29,000, and so on. The pro who finishes last in the no-entry-fee championship will take $2,000.
Co-angler competition will end on day three. A full field of 48 co-anglers will fish for a combined two-day weight to advance to the 24-slot final round. Weights are then cleared, with the weight on day three determining the Co-angler Division champion, who will collect $25,000 cash. The co-angler finishing 48th will receive $500.
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. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1996 and has since expanded its sponsorship of FLW Outdoors’ fishing tournaments to include the EverStart Series, Wal-Mart BFL, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Circuit and Ranger M1. FLW Outdoors will award anglers as much as $22 million in 2002 through 170 tournaments nationwide.