DEL RIO, Texas – The $6.5 million Stren Series is headed to Lake Amistad May 21-23 for a $275,225 bass tournament. As many as 400 pros and co-anglers from 15 states will be competing in the third Texas Division tournament of the season for top awards of $65,000 and $35,000, respectively.
“I’m catching a lot of fish,” said Stephen Johnston of Hemphill, Texas, during this week’s practice on Lake Amistad. Johnston is currently in second place in the Stren Series Texas Division standings. “The reports, though, down here for the year so far, they’re just not catching the size of fish. They’re catching the number of fish, but just not the 4- to 5-pounders that you normally catch this time of the year.”
Johnston is changing up his tactics during this practice time. “I’ve went a lot deeper to see if the fish have went deeper and trying to go through and catch as many as I can, seeing if the bigger ones are there.”
This tactic has not yet succeeded for the angler, but he is seeing results in 12 to 18 feet of water.
Johnston has been throwing a Carolina rig and a crankbait to lure the big fish he hopes to find for the tournament.
“The water is high, significantly higher than a year ago, and places where I caught them last time is too deep now,” said Johnston, reporting on the water conditions at Lake Amistad. “I’ve tried fishing shallow waters, but I’m just not getting many bites fishing shallow. There were fish still bedding a few weeks ago, but they have moved out now so it seems we are running about two weeks behind.
“I think these fish are transitioning from shallow waters out deeper and when they are swimming from one place to another, it’s hard to key in on them.”
Johnston also comments that the projected weather for the tournament will be in the mid-90s with winds of 15 to 18 mph. “This is the kind of weather you want, so it should be really good.”
Although Johnston is still trying to find those big bass, he is optimistic about the upcoming tournament. “Somebody is still going to catch them. There’s so much water here and there’s so much good fishing and if you pull up on the right spot, I wouldn’t be surprised to still see weights over 25 pounds.”
Anglers will take off from Lake Amistad Marina located at Highway 90 W. HCR 3 in Del Rio at 6:30 each morning. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will be held at the marina beginning at 2:30 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Walmart store located at 2410 Dodson St. in Del Rio beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The Lake Amistad Stren Series tournament is hosted by the Del Rio Chamber of Commerce.
Pros will fish for a top award of $25,000 plus a 198VX Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor and Lowrance electronics if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $7,500 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant in the contingency program.
Co-anglers will cast for a top award of a 177TR Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and trailer. If the co-angler meets the Ranger Cup guidelines, they will earn an additional $5,000. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $2,500 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant in the contingency program.
Competitors will also be vying for valuable points that could earn them a trip to the Stren Series Championship on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Ala., Nov. 5-7 for a shot at $150,000 in the Pro Division and $60,000 in the Co-angler Division. After four qualifying events are complete in each Stren Series division – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western – the top 40 pros and 40 co-anglers based on the points standings from each division will advance to the championship. The top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers from each division will also qualify for the 2010 Walmart FLW Tour and Walmart FLW Series, bass fishing’s top professional circuits. The highest-finishing pro and co-angler from each division at the Stren Series Championship will also qualify for the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup, where anglers will compete for the $1 million grand prize – the most lucrative award in bass fishing.
In Stren Series competition, pros supply the boats, fish from the front deck against other pros and control boat movement. Co-anglers fish from the back deck and compete against other co-anglers. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points that determine angler standings. Two hundred points are awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 points for third, and so on. The full field competes on days one and two, with the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers advancing to day three based on their three-day accumulated weight. Winners are determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from all three days.
Total awards are based on a full field of 200 boats in every tournament.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2009 alone the organization is offering more bass and walleye anglers from coast to coast the chance to win more than $33 million through 231 tournaments. FLW Outdoors also is taking fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing, offering the largest awards possible in the history of fantasy sports, $10 million in cash and prizes. Sign up for Player’s Advantage for only $10 to get your edge and win.
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.