HENDERSON, N.C. (Sept. 17, 2008) – Pro Dustin Wilks of Rocky Mount N.C., caught a five-bass limit weighing 14 pounds, 12 ounces Wednesday to lead opening day of the Stren Series Northern Division tournament on Kerr Lake.
“This is a really tough lake this time of year,” Wilks said. “I only caught five to eight fish a day in practice so I knew it wasn’t going to easy.
“I had a pretty good idea that the area that I caught them in today had more than what I had bite in practice. This area gave me a lot of confidence so I decided to start out there today.”
Wilks caught a total of nine keepers all throughout the day. He is running ten miles from Satterwhite Point Recreation Area to his key spot.
“I plan on fishing new water tomorrow to look for new fish,” Wilks said. “I think that as long as I can get one big bite each day I will make the cut to Saturday.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Mark Inman of Greensboro, N.C. (five bass, 13-12); Kurt Dove of Fairfax, Va. (five bass, 13-05); Rodney Sorrell of Stokesdale, N.C. (five bass, 12-12); and Michael Iaconelli of Runnemede, N.J (five bass, 11-12).
Overall there were 270 bass weighing 575 pounds, 1 ounce caught by 96 pros Wednesday. The catch included 26 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.
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William Shelton III of La Crosse, Wis., 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 five bass weighing 11-00 while fishing with pro Robert Vogelsang of Jessup, Md., who is currently in 30th place.
“I didn’t expect to have as much weight as I did,” Shelton said. “I try to do something a little different from my partner. I try and give the fish a different bait to look at.
“If he was throwing a bait on the bottom then I would throw a top-water bait. I wanted to catch the fish that he was missing.”
Shelton used a total of three different baits to catch five keepers today.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Moo Bae of West Friendship, Md. (five bass, 9-15); Gary McClain of Chesapeake, Va. (five bass, 9-11); William Dorton of Church Road, Va. (five bass, 9-06); and Chris Sims of Virginia Beach, Va. (five bass, 9-02).
Overall there were 162 bass weighing 310 pounds, 6 ounces caught by 96 co-anglers Wednesday. The catch included seven 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 7 each morning from Satterwhite Point Recreation Area located at 6470 Satterwhite Point Road in Henderson. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-in will be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 200 N. Cooper Road in Henderson, 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. 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, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.