Parsons leads Stren Series event on Lake Texoma

DENISON, Texas – Pro Dave Parsons of Yantis, Texas, caught a five-bass limit weighing 21 pounds, 2 ounces Thursday to capture a lead in the Stren Series Texas Division tournament on Lake Texoma. With a two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 32-10, he now holds an 3-pound, 8-ounce lead over second place pro Tim Harp of Pottsboro, Texas, who managed to haul in a total of 10 bass weighing 29-02 during the first two days of competition.

“I only caught seven keepers today,” Parsons said. “I didn’t catch a lot of fish, but I caught good quality, obviously.”

Parsons revealed he is throwing several different baits and has four rods on his deck, catching his fish on a crankbait, ChatterBait, spinnerbait and flipping stick.

“I’m not even hitting the same areas; I’m not fishing the same place I fished yesterday,” Parsons said. “I don’t even know if I’m going back to the area I was in today. I have five areas I’m fishing, so I may go to another. I’m rotating, and once I think I’m in an area where I think there’s a lot of fish, I just stay with it and fish pretty hard; the next day, I go to a different area.”

Parsons attributes his success to his strategy.

“Tomorrow is going to be a day like today,” Parsons said. “I’m going to try and concentrate and duplicate my pattern I did today and hit some different areas and give my big fish area a rest, and maybe let it reload.”

Rounding out the top five pros are Robert Robinson of Mobile, Ala. (10 bass, 28-08); Cody Martin of Taylor, Texas (10 bass, 28-02); and Chris McCall of Jasper, Texas (10 bass, 27-09).

Parsons earned $218 for the Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to a 7-pound, 11-ounce bass.

Overall there were 479 bass weighing 1,037 pounds, 12 ounces caught by 131 pros Thursday. The catch included 67 five-bass limits.

Pros are competing for as much as $65,000, including a 198VX Ranger powered by Evinrude or Yamaha if contingency guidelines are met, and valuable points toward qualifying for the $1 million Stren Series Championship in Branson, Mo., Nov. 5-8 for a shot at $140,000. After four qualifying events are complete in each of the circuit’s five divisions, the top 40 pros from each division will advance to the championship. The highest-finishing pro from each division at the championship will also earn a spot in the $2 million 2009 Forrest Wood Cup, where they will compete against top pros from the Wal-Mart FLW Tour®, Wal-Mart FLW Series®, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League® and TBF (The Bass Federation) for bass fishing’s biggest prize – $1 million.

Tournament pros aren’t the only ones winning big this season. With the introduction of FLW Fantasy Fishing™, FLW Outdoors® offers anyone the opportunity to enter for their chance to land the catch of a lifetime with the opportunity to win $7.3 million in cash and prizes. Players can become a virtual pro angler by signing up for Player’s Advantage, providing them with exclusive insider information that could guide them to a $100,000 victory at every Wal-Mart FLW Tour® stop and the Forrest Wood Cup. Player’s Advantage will give them an edge over the competition and increase their shot for a $1 million cash grand prize that will be awarded to the FLW Fantasy Fishing cumulative points winner. Those who visit FantasyFishing.com today can sign up for Player’s Advantage and FLW Outdoors will include a $15 Wal-Mart gift card.

Chris Bobo of Sherman, Texas, leads the Co-angler Division in the chase for a top award of $35,000, including a 198VX Ranger if contingency guidelines are met. He caught three bass weighing 10-12 while fishing with pro Tommy Martin of Hemphill, Texas, Wednesday and five bass weighing 10-09 while fishing with pro Robert Robinson of Mobile, Ala., Thursday for a total of eight bass weighing 21-05.

“Just the experience is amazing,” Bobo said. “Basically, what we were doing today was kind of a speed pattern; we were moving really fast, power fishing. We hit a lot of things-tires, boat docks and stayed kind of clear of the murky water.”

Bobo said the bite was better in clear water, and caught his limit throwing spinnerbaits, swimming jigs around boat houses and wacky rigs around tires.

Rounding out the top five co-anglers are George Coffman of Marlow, Okla. (nine bass, 20-15); Bo Middleton of Elgin, Okla. (10 bass, 19-09); Stephen Francis of Brookeland, Texas (10 bass, 18-15); and Dan Wilson of Pilot Point, Texas (seven bass, 17-13).

Jason Pittman of Ardmore, Okla., earned $116 for the Snickers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 6-pound, 6-ounce bass.

Overall there were 268 bass weighing 548 pounds, 11 ounces caught by 131 co-anglers Thursday. The catch included 14 five-bass limits.

The top 40 co-anglers from each Stren Series division will also advance to the championship, where they will fish for as much as $70,000. The highest-finishing co-angler from each division at the championship will then advance to the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup.

Anglers will take off at 6:30 each morning from Highport Marina located at 120 Texoma Harbor Drive in Pottsboro, Texas. Friday’s weigh-in will be held at the marina beginning at 2:30 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 401 U.S. North Highway 75 in Denison, Texas, beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

Stren Series tournaments are four-day events consisting of two rounds. The entire field competes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. At the conclusion of Friday’s weigh-in, the field is cut to the top 10 pros and co-anglers based on the heaviest three-day accumulated weights. These anglers continue competition Saturday, with the winners 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.

FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2008 alone the organization is offering more than 90,000 anglers the chance to win over $40 million through 230 tournaments in 10 circuits targeting bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass. FLW Outdoors is also taking fishing mainstream with the largest cash awards in the history of fantasy sports, $7.3 million.

For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.