SHREVEPORT, La. – Some of North Carolina’s 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.
With seven North Carolina anglers competing, the Old North State is tied with Texas for the most representatives. Castrol’s David Dudley of Manteo, Chris Baumgardner of Gastonia, Fujifilm’s Joel Richardson of Kernersville, Chevy’s David Fritts of Lexington, Tracy Adams of Wilkesboro, Kellogg’s Alvin Shaw of State Road and Marty Stone of Linden will represent North Carolina in a field of 48 Pro Division anglers.
Dudley qualified as the No. 7 seed and will fish head-to-head against No. 42 seed Gerald Swindle of Hayden, Ala., for the first two days of competition. The angler with the heaviest weight will advance to the semifinal round of 24 anglers.
This past spring, Dudley became the beneficiary of the highest payout in bass-fishing history when he won an unprecedented $700,000 as the winner of the Ranger M1 tournament on the Mobile-Tensaw Delta near Mobile, Ala. Dudley’s winnings total more than $1 million via the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, the EverStart Series and the Ranger M1. He has fished his way into the top 10 seven times on the FLW Tour, four times in the EverStart Series and twice in the Ranger M1. He is making his sixth championship appearance. Swindle’s best finish in 2002 was a 15th-place effort on Alabama’s Wheeler Lake in February. The 1998 winner of the Wal-Mart Open is making his fourth championship appearance. He has career earnings of more than $350,000 via the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and the BFL.
No. 18 seed Baumgardner will fish against No. 31 seed Roger Crafton of Boca Grande, Fla., during days one and two. Baumgardner put together his best FLW Tour season to date in 2002 after seven years on the series. This is his second FLW Tour championship appearance. Baumgardner’s career earnings on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and the Ranger M1 total nearly $75,000. Crafton is making his first Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship appearance after five years fishing the series. Crafton is an accomplished angler on the EverStart Series and the Wal-Mart BFL. He has more than $100,000 in career earnings.
Richardson qualified as the No. 20 seed and will face No. 29 seed Wes Thomas of Hanover, Ind., the first two days. Richardson landed a top-20 berth at the Forrest Wood Open on New York’s Lake Champlain in June with a 14th-place effort and finished in the 25th spot at the Wal-Mart Open on Arkansas’ Beaver Lake in April. A former Wal-Mart BFL Piedmont Division Champion, Richardson has earned almost $270,000 via the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series, the Wal-Mart BFL and the Ranger M1. This is his fifth Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship appearance. Thomas, who also fishes for Team Fujifilm, began the 2002 season with his best finish of the year, a 23rd-place effort on Florida’s Lake Okeechobee in January. This is Thomas’ third year fishing the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and his first championship appearance. He has amassed more than $42,000 in career earnings via the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series, the BFL and the Ranger M1.
Fritts will enter the tournament as the No. 25 seed and will fish against No. 24 seed John Sappington of Wyandotte, Okla. Fritts holds the Wal-Mart FLW Tour record with four tournament wins, and the accomplished angler also has 10 top-10 finishes in his FLW Tour career. His best finish in 2002 was a 16th-place effort at Old Hickory Lake near Gallatin, Tenn., in May. Fritts has earned more than $638,000 through the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and the Ranger M1. Sappington fished his way into the top 20 three times in 2002, including a fifth-place finish on Old Hickory Lake. This is Sappington’s fourth year to fish the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and his third championship appearance. His career earnings total more than $92,000 via the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series and the BFL.
Adams qualified as the No. 28 seed and will compete against No. 21 seed Tommy Biffle of Wagoner, Okla., on days one and two. Adams earned his berth with finishes like his seventh-place showing in April at the Wal-Mart Open on Arkansas’ Beaver Lake. He has three career top-10 tournament finishes and has earned more than $135,000 through the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series, the Wal-Mart BFL and the Ranger M1. This is his second championship appearance. Biffle finished sixth at the Forrest Wood Open to add another notch to his career top-10 column, which now totals eight top-10 tournament finishes. This is Biffle’s sixth consecutive championship appearance. The Chevy pro’s career earnings total more than $345,000 through the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series and the Ranger M1.
Shaw will enter the tournament as the No. 45 seed and will face fellow Kellogg’s pro Clark Wendlandt of Cedar Park, Texas, in the No. 4 spot. Shaw has seven top-10 tournament finishes in his Wal-Mart FLW Tour career, and his best outing in 2002 was a 14th-place effort at the Wal-Mart Open. A seven-year FLW Tour veteran, Shaw has earned more than $132,000 via the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series, the BFL and the Ranger M1. Former Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year Wendlandt racked up two top-10 finishes in 2002, including a fourth-place effort at the Wal-Mart Open and a seventh-place showing on Wheeler Lake. The accomplished pro has 15 top-10 tournament finishes to his credit and is making his sixth consecutive championship appearance. He has earned $709,000 through the Wal-Mart FLW Tour.
Stone, the No. 47 seed, will fish against the No. 2 seed, Chevy pro Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., the first two days. Stone, a six-year veteran of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, had his best finish of 2002 on Lake Okeechobee with a 27th-place finish. Since 1997, Stone has accumulated seven top-10 tournament finishes. This is his fourth championship appearance. His earnings via the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series, the BFL and the Ranger M1 exceed $206,000. VanDam, who has been called the Tiger Woods of professional bass fishing, had two top-five finishes in 2002, including a second-place effort on Arkansas’ Lake Ouachita in March and a third-place effort on Old Hickory Lake. The 2001 Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year has career earnings in excess of $284,000. VanDam is making his second 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.