PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis. – The Great Lakes Division of the $8.4 million Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League will visit the Mississippi River near Prairie Du Chien Oct. 1-2 for a two-day Super Tournament, the Great Lakes Division’s final event of the season. As many as 200 boaters and 200 co-anglers are expected to compete in the tournament, which will award as much as $70,950 in cash, including as much as $8,400 to the Boater Division winner.
Anglers interested in fishing the tournament may register online at FLWOutdoors.com or by calling (270) 252-1000. If the tournament is not yet full, entries will also be accepted at the pretournament registration meeting, which will be held Sept. 30 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Wal-Mart located at 38020 U.S. Hwy. 18 in Prairie Du Chien. Entry fees are $300 for boaters and $150 for co-anglers.
St. Feriole Island Landing in Prairie Du Chien will host the takeoff and weigh-in at 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively. Anglers will compete for prize money as well as points that count toward postseason competition. Anglers will receive extra points in a Super Tournament, with 300 points going to the winner, 299 going to second place, 298 going to third place and so on. Super Tournaments are two-day events. The full field competes Saturday, and the top 20 percent compete in Sunday’s final round. Winners are determined by the heaviest two-day catch weight.
If the winner is a participant in the Ranger Cup incentive program, he will receive a $1,000 bonus from Ranger Boats and $500 from Yamaha if his boat is powered by Yamaha. (Ranger will award $500 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant if not the winner, and Yamaha will kick in $250 if the boat is powered by Yamaha.) If the winning boater uses only Garmin electronics during the event and at least one product is a qualifying unit, Garmin will also award a $1,000 bonus. Bombardier will award $1,000 to the winning boater if the winner’s boat is equipped with a qualifying Evinrude Direct Injection outboard. That’s a potential top award of $11,400 for anglers who meet contingency guidelines.
The winning co-angler will earn as much as $4,200 cash. The angler who catches the biggest bass of the day in the Boater Division will earn as much as $2,000, and the co-angler big-bass winner will earn as much as $1,000.
The top 40 boaters and co-anglers in each of the BFL’s 28 divisions at the end of the season are eligible to advance to regional competition. Seven $110,000 regional championships will each send six boaters and six co-anglers to the 2006 All-American championship, which will feature a $1 million purse and a top award as high as $140,000. Anglers who compete in all five regular-season events within a division but do not advance to regional competition are eligible to compete in the Wild Card, which will also send six boaters and six co-anglers to the All-American for a championship field of 48 boaters and 48 co-anglers.
The top 40 Great Lakes Division boaters and co-anglers will advance to the Ohio River Regional near Paducah, Ky., Oct. 11-15 and will compete against anglers from the Arkie, Hoosier and Michigan divisions for an All-American slot. The top 40 anglers from each division may also advance to the EverStart Series in 2006.
For more information or to enter any BFL tournament, call (270) 252-1000 or browse FLWOutdoors.com.
In BFL competition, boaters supply the boat and compete from the front deck against other boaters. Co-anglers compete from the back deck against other co-anglers.
As the nation’s leading provider of affordable, close-to-home weekend tournaments, the BFL is widely credited with opening competitive bass fishing to the masses. It also serves as a steppingstone for anglers who wish to advance to the EverStart Series and ultimately the Wal-Mart FLW Tour – bass fishing’s most lucrative tournament series. Former BFL anglers who have become fishing superstars on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour include Kellogg’s pro Clark Wendlandt, Ranger pro Tommy Biffle and four-time FLW Tour champion David Fritts.
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.