Perry best boater in BFL event on Kerr Lake

HENDERSON, N.C. – Boater Bryan Perry of Raleigh earned $4,493 Saturday as winner of the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League Piedmont Division event on Kerr Lake. The tournament was the third of five regular-season Piedmont Division events and featured 150 boaters vying for the win, which earned Perry 200 points in the Boater Division. Perry also earned the $1,000 Garmin Grand award, $1,000 Ranger Cup award and $500 Powered by Yamaha award for a grand total of $6,993.

Perry’s winning catch of five bass weighed 16 pounds, 1 ounce. He fished a crankbait on main-lake stumps and rocks.

Finishing second was with five bass weighing 15 pounds, 5 ounces that earned him $2,247. Burley Hamill III of Wake Forest claimed $1,471 as the third-place finisher thanks to five bass weighing 14 pounds, 14 ounces. In fourth was Carl Ward of Durham with five bass weighing 14 pounds, 9 ounces worth $1,144, and finishing fifth and earning $940 was Sam Cole of Lexington with five bass weighing 14 pounds, 8 ounces.

Garry Wray of Burlington took Boater Division big-bass award honors, earning $750 for a 5-pound, 13-ounce bass. He caught his big bass on a Texas-rigged Brush Hog.

Ronald Livengood of Henderson bested 150 Co-angler Division competitors to earn $2,247 as the winner, thanks to five bass weighing 12 pounds, 12 ounces that he caught on a spinnerbait fished along a windy point.

Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Tim Atkins of Durham (five bass, 12 pounds, 10 ounces, $1,123); Michael Chlomoudis of Murfreesboro (four bass, 11 pounds, 8 ounces, $734); James Kirkland of Holly Springs (five bass, 10 pounds, 15 ounces, $572); and Jim Nichols of Chapel Hill (five bass, 10 pounds, 5 ounces, $470).

Robert Whitehurst of Quinton, Va., earned $375 as the co-angler big-bass award winner with a 4-pound, 13-ounce bass he caught on a Carolina-rigged watermelon lizard fished in stumps 8-12 feet deep.

The Piedmont Division’s next event will be held July 23 on the Chickahominy River near Williamsburg, Va. The Piedmont Division will wrap up its regular season Sept. 17-18 with a two-day Super Tournament on Kerr Lake near Henderson.

Following the regular season, the Piedmont Division boater with the most points will earn $1,000 as the Yamaha “Be the Best” points champion. The co-angler amassing the most points will earn $500 as the Yamaha “Be the Best” points champion in the Co-angler Division.

Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points, with 200 points going to the winner, 199 for second, 198 for third, and so on except for Super Tournaments, which award 300 points to the winner, 299 for second, 298 for third, and so on. The top 40 Piedmont Division boaters and co-anglers based on year-end points standings will advance to the Lake Cherokee Regional near Morristown, Tenn., Oct. 4-8 where they will compete against Buckeye, Illini, and LBL division anglers for one of six slots in the 2006 All-American. With a total purse of $1 million and a potential $140,000 cash prize going to the winning boater and $70,000 going to the winning co-angler, the All-American is one of the most prestigious and lucrative events in bass fishing.

The $8.4 million Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League features 28 divisions nationwide. In BFL competition, boaters and co-anglers are randomly paired, with boaters supplying the boat and fishing against other boaters and co-anglers fishing from the back deck against other co-anglers. For more information or to enter a tournament, call (270) 252-1000 or browse this Web site.

Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League 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.

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.