JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Fishing fans: Looking for the best striped-bass action on the East Coast? Then fish the $125,000 Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series tournament out of Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City, N.J., Sept. 30. The entry fee is $450 per team, and you could win as much as $50,000. Even if you are not fishing, you won’t want to miss the New York-New Jersey International Boat Show at Liberty Landing.
The new $1 million FLW Striper Series will hold a catch-and-release striped bass tournament in conjunction with the New York-New Jersey International Boat Show. For discount tickets available only through FLW Outdoors, click here.
The winning team at the event will earn $20,000 cash, guaranteed, and as much as $50,000 cash based on boat and engine bonuses from Hydra-Sports, Seaswirl, Wellcraft, Evinrude and Yamaha. The top 25 teams will also advance to a three-day, no-entry-fee championship where they will compete for a share of $150,000, including a top award of $50,000, to be televised on FSN (Fox Sports Net).
It’s not too late to get in on the action. Openings are still available in the tournament, which has an early entry fee of $450 per team and an on-site entry fee of $500 per team. Teams ranging in size from two to four anglers may register online at FLWOutdoors.com or by calling (270) 252-1000. Entries will also be accepted during on-site registration from 3 to 6 p.m. at Liberty Landing Marina located at 80 Audrey Zapp Drive.
“This is the very beginning of the striper migration south,” said Team Wellcraft Captain Thomas Morford of Sea Bright, N.J. “With that in mind, we should be sitting in the middle of a bunch of fish”
Morford, whose team finished in fourth place during the season opener in Oceanside, N.Y., predicts high weights and down-to-the-wire competition for the fifth stop of the season.
“Probably no more than a pound will separate the top five teams,” he said. “It’s going to be very competitive as the fish are schooling up for the migration and gorging on bait. It will take 34-pounds-plus to win.”
The majority of teams will drag umbrella rigs and wire, with parachute jigs being the bait of choice, according to Morford. Anglers will target rock piles and races close to shore in the hope of catching 34-inch stripers feeding on sand eels and other bait.
In FLW Striper Series competition, each team may weigh in two striped bass ranging in size from 28 to 34 inches (unless local regulations dictate otherwise). The fish must be kept alive in new keep-alive boxes developed by FLW Outdoors and KeepAlive Systems that will be available for purchase or rent during registration. The innovative boxes, based on proven live-release techniques, allow all FLW Outdoors striper tournaments to be catch-and-release events – thus helping to protect the nation’s striped bass population and ensure a vibrant fishery for generations to come. Teams are charged a 2-pound penalty for any fish that is not weighed in alive.
Teams fishing the tournament presented by Castrol will take off from Liberty Landing Marina at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning, Sept. 30. The scales open at 2:30 p.m. at the marina. The morning start and weigh-in are free and open to the public.
Following the Jersey City event, FLW Striper Series tournaments will be held at Cedar Creek Marina in Slaughter Beach, Del., Oct. 28 and Gootee’s Marine in Cambridge, Md., Nov. 4.
The FLW Striper Series Championship in Virginia Beach, Va., Dec. 7-9 will be televised as part of “FLW Outdoors” on FSN (Fox Sports Net), which reaches 81 million subscribers in the United States. “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.
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 presented by Abu Garcia, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $37.9 million through 249 events in 2006.
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.