RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (May 9, 2007) – Team National Guard pro Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla., landed five bass weighing 21 pounds, 1 ounce Wednesday to lead day one of the Wal-Mart FLW Series BP Eastern Division tournament on Lake Dardanelle. He now holds a 1-pound, 3-ounce lead in the $1 million tournament featuring 197 pros and 197 co-anglers representing 33 states.
“I have a shallow bite going on and I have a little bit of a deep bite going on,” said Martin, who has earned more than $738,000 in FLW Outdoors events. “I had my fish by 11:30, and I wanted to ride around a bit and see who was fishing my water and see what areas were getting pressure.”
Martin said he fished specific spots he had targeted during practice and eliminated any spots that did not share the same characteristics.
“I’m just looking at spots and saying, `That looks right,'” Martin said. “I’m going to go back to those spots and fish them tomorrow.”
Martin said he flipped in shallow water and used a ¾-ounce All-Terrain Tackle Jim Moynagh’s Football Head Jig for deep-water offshore applications in 6 to 15 feet of water.
“The key today was that I found fish around the rocks,” Martin said. “I’ve expanded some of the places I’d found and I found some patches of rock in there and started getting bit.”
Al Fisher of Hackett, Ark., trails Martin in the No. 2 spot with five bass weighing 19-14.
Fisher said he caught the majority of his fish in 4 feet of water with a Norman Lures crankbait while the sun was out, but said his bite died when clouds moved in. Fisher said he concentrated on post-spawn fish relating to offshore cover and had only one fish in the boat at 10:30.
“When the sun gets up in the middle of the day, that’s when the fish bite best for me,” Fisher said. “I feel pretty comfortable right now, but it’s fishing. It doesn’t matter how well you know an area, you can still go out and bomb.
“I was just glad to get the bites I got today,” Fisher added.
Rounding out the top five pros are Charlie King of Shreveport, La. (five bass, 19-1); Team BP pro Shinichi Fukae of Mineola, Texas (five bass, 18-15) and Jerry Williams of Conway, Ark. (five bass, 17-10).
Fisher earned the day’s $488 Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to a 6-pound, 9-ounce bass he caught.
Overall there were 771 bass weighing 1,954 pounds, 6 ounces caught by pros Wednesday. The catch included 104 five-bass limits.
Pros are competing this week for a top award of $125,000 plus valuable points in the hope of qualifying for the BP East-National Guard West Fishoff and a shot at advancing to the $2 million, 2008 Forrest Wood Cup, where the winning pro will earn as much as $1 million – the sport’s biggest award. The top 30 pros from both FLW Series divisions after four qualifying events are complete will advance to the East-West Fishoff, which will be held Jan. 17-19, 2008. The location for the fishoff has not yet been announced. Thirty winners from the fishoff will advance to the 2008 Forrest Wood Cup.
Ben Hand of Memphis, Tenn., leads the Co-angler Division with five bass weighing 13-7 followed by Terry Chapman of Stanley, N.C., in second place with five bass weighing 13-3.
“We caught our fish shallow early and deeper later,” said Hand, who is fishing Lake Dardanelle for the first time. “I culled two fish.”
Hand fished with pro Tim Shmigal of Akron, Ohio, who is currently in 71st place with five bass weighing 11-15.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Jerry Weisinger of Wyandotte, Okla. (five bass, 13-1); James Richardson of Harrison, Ohio (five bass, 13-0) and Bob Bjorklund of Centennial, Colo. (five bass, 12-10).
Eugene Moore of Little Rock, Ark., earned $295 for the Snickers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 6-pound, 1-ounce bass he caught while fishing with pro Kenny Holloway of Eatonton, Ga.
Overall there were 383 bass weighing 920 pounds, 15 ounces caught by co-anglers Wednesday. The catch included 15 five-bass limits.
Co-anglers are competing this week for a top award of $25,000. Like the pros, the top 30 co-anglers from both FLW Series divisions after four qualifying events are complete will advance to the East-West Fishoff for a shot at the $2 million, 2008 Forrest Wood Cup.
Anglers will take off at 6:30 each morning from Lake Dardanelle State Park located at 100 State Park Dr. in Russellville. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-in will be held at Lake Dardanelle State Park beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 2409 E. Main St. in Russellville beginning at 4 p.m. Children will also be treated to a Family Fun Zone prior to Saturday’s weigh-in from noon to 4 p.m. at Wal-Mart. Activities in the Family Fun Zone include the Fujifilm trout pond, a Ranger boat simulator and assorted fishing-themed games. All activities are free and open to the public.
In FLW Series 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 entire field competes for the first three days, and co-angler competition concludes on day three with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated three-day weight. The top 10 professionals continue competition on day four, and the winner is determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from all four days.
FLW Outdoors historically maintains a 98 percent live release rate in all of its bass tournaments.
Coverage of the Lake Dardanelle FLW Series tournament will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program airing July 15. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to approximately 350 million households in Europe, Africa and Asia, making it the most widely distributed weekly fishing program 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, Ranger Owners Tournament Championship Series, 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 of nearly $43 million through 241 events in 2007.
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 Walmart.com.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.