$7.6 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour to visit Kentucky Lake

May 10-13 tourney marks fifth event of regular season

BENTON, KY. – The $7.6 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour will stop in Benton, Ky., May 10-13 for its fifth regular-season tournament, presented by Pedigree on Kentucky Lake.

Hosted by the Marshall County Chamber of Commerce and Marshall County Tourist Commission, the tournament features 400 anglers from 37 states, Japan, Spain and Australia, with 200 of the world’s best bass pros fishing for a top award of $100,000 cash. Two hundred co-anglers will compete for a top award of $20,000 cash.

Team Folgers pro Anthony Gagliardi, who won $100,000 during the tour’s last visit to Kentucky Lake in 2004, believes conditions will suit a broad range of angling styles and techniques.

“There could be some very warm weather. If that’s the case, there will probably be a light spawn and the beginning of the postspawn,” said the 28-year-old Prosperity, S.C., native who is currently second in the Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year race. “Some fish will be on the banks and some will be on the ledges. This will spread anglers out and open it up to cranking ledges, points and deep structure or flipping bushes, and maybe even a topwater bite.”

National Guard pro Jonathon Newton of Rogersville, Ala., who won the 2004 Stren Series event on Kentucky Lake, averaged more than 17-pounds a day fishing a deep-diving crankbait. He believes it’s going to take a solid five-fish limit each day make it to the final round.

“I think a lot of fish are going to come from Barkley in the shallow water,” Newton said. “A lot of anglers will be flipping flooded brush. If I had to guess, I would say it’ll take around 15 pounds a day to make the top-10 cut.”

Anglers will take off at 6:30 each morning from Kentucky Dam Marina. Wednesday and Thursday’s weigh-ins will also be held at the Marina beginning at 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 310 West Fifth Street in Benton beginning at 4 p.m.

The community is invited to attend the free Family Fun Zone Friday and Saturday outside the weigh-in tent in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The Family Fun Zone, which opens at 2 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday, features interactive displays, product samples and games for the entire family to enjoy.

The full field competes in the two-day opening round for one of 10 slots in Friday’s competition based on their two-day accumulated weight. Weights are cleared for day three, and co-angler competition concludes following Friday’s weigh-in. The top 10 pros continue competition Saturday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from days three and four.

In FLW Tour competition, 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. The total purse for the Kentucky Lake tournament is $900,000, including $10,000 through 50th place in the Pro Division. In addition to this purse, Tyson will release three tagged “Power Bass” worth $5,000 each into Kentucky Lake. Any pro or co-angler competing in the tournament is eligible to catch these “Power Bass” and claim the cash award.

As part of the tournament festivities, FLW Tour anglers will be greeting fans at two local Wal-Mart stores May 8 from 5 to 7 p.m. Among the pros participating will be Imodium Advanced pro Jack Gadlage of Benton, Ky., who has one win and nine top-10s competing in FLW Outdoors events. Gadlage will be speaking at the Wal-Mart store located at 310 West Fifth Street in Benton along with BFGoodrich Tires pro Chad Grigsby, A&W pro J.T. Kenney, Pedigree pro Greg Pugh and Banana Boat pro Kevin Vida. Combined, these professional bass anglers have 75 top-10 finishes and have amassed more than $1 million in winnings competing in FLW Outdoors events.

Kellogg’s pro Dave Lefebre of Union City, Penn., will be among the anglers speaking at the Wal-Mart store located at 809 North 12th Street in Murray. Lefebre finished fifth in the 2005 Angler of the Year race, making him one of the most consistent anglers on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour. Joining him at the Murray location will be Pedigree pro Jeffrey Thomas, Tyson pro Jim Moynagh, Newton and Folgers pro Scott Suggs. With nine wins between them, these veteran pros have earned nearly $1.5 million fishing at the sport’s highest level.

Country Chevrolet, located at 104 West Fifth Street in Benton, will host Chevy Pro Night featuring Larry Nixon, Dion Hibdon, Kim Stricker, David Fritts and Luke Clausen on May 10. The world-class anglers, who account for 10 FLW Tour victories and more than $2.5 million in winnings, will be signing autographs, posing for photos and answering questions from 6 to 8 p.m.

This is the most lucrative FLW Tour season to date with a $7.6 million purse, including four $900,000 events and two $1.25 million open events during the regular season. Each event leads up to the $1.5 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship and Outdoor Show presented by Castrol, which will be held Aug. 2-5 on Logan Martin Lake in Birmingham, Ala. The prestigious championship hosted by Birmingham, Pell City and St. Clair County features 48 pros, 48 co-anglers and bass fishing’s largest guaranteed cash award – a $500,000 first-place prize for the winning pro. Held in conjunction with the tournament is a world-class outdoor show featuring more than 140 exhibits.

Coverage of the Wal-Mart Open will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States on June 25 and July 2 as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to more than 350 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoor-sports television show in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 servicemembers stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.

Kellogg’s will present the sixth and final stop of the FLW Tour’s regular season on Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh, N.Y. June 21-24.

Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $36.9 million through 241 events in 2006. FLW Outdoors also recently announced the addition of a striped bass circuit, which will debut this summer.

For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, browse FLWOutdoors.com 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 an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.