MANY, La. – The $1 million Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail presented by Lay’s will make its final regular-season stop May 21-22 on Toledo Bend Reservoir near Many. Hosted by Cypress Bend Park, the tournament will feature as many as 400 of Texas’ finest pros and co-anglers casting for their share of as much as $205,500 in cash and prizes based on full fields.
The largest reservoir in Louisiana, Toledo Bend will be primed and ready when anglers arrive the third week in May. “The bass are finishing up postspawn and will be firmly on the ledges when the tournament starts,” said local pro Jim Campbell of Many. “There will still be a good morning bite in 2-6 feet of water with frogs, Senkos, and soft jerkbaits. Recent tournaments have been won on a Reaction Lures Ribbit with a good early morning frog bite.”
While 25-pound bags are possible on Toledo Bend, Campbell thinks it will take less to win the event. “This time of year, 18 pounds a day will be hard to beat,” he said.
Anglers take off at 7 each morning from Cypress Bend Park in Many. Saturday’s weigh-in will also be held at the park beginning at 3 p.m., and Sunday’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 155 San Antonio Avenue in Many beginning at 4 p.m. The community is invited to attend daily takeoffs and weigh-ins.
The winning pro can earn as much as $65,000, which includes a Ranger 519 VX powered by a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Yamaha outboard, Minn Kota trolling motor, Garmin electronics and EverStart batteries plus $30,000 cash. Ranger will also award $5,000 to the highest-finishing pro in the Ranger Cup incentive program, and Yamaha will kick in an additional $2,500 if the Ranger Cup winner’s boat is powered by a Yamaha Outboard. Garmin will award the winning pro an additional $1,000 if the winner uses only Garmin electronics and at least one unit is a qualifying unit. All told, the winning pro could earn as much as $73,500 if all contingency guidelines are met.
The top 50 pros and co-anglers based on year-end points standings will advance to the $195,000 Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail Championship Oct. 15-16 on Lake Conroe near Conroe. The winning pro at the championship can earn as much as $71,000 in cash and prizes, including a Ranger boat.
In TTT competition, 200 points are awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 for third, and so on. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points. These points determine angler standings. Pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day, with pros supplying the boat, controlling boat movement and competing against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back deck against other co-anglers. Two hundred pros and 200 co-anglers comprise a full field.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail and seven other national tournament circuits offering a combined $30 million in awards through 214 events in 2005. The 27-year-old organization is the purveyor of America’s largest and most prestigious fishing tournaments, including the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series.
For more information on FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, browse this Web site or call (270) 252-1000.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1997 and today is the title sponsor of all FLW Outdoors events. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.