DECATUR, Ala. – The $6.5 million Stren Series is headed to Wheeler Lake June 4-6 for a $275,225 bass tournament. As many as 400 pros and co-anglers will be competing in the third Southeast Division tournament of the season for top awards of $65,000 and $35,000, respectively.
“I love fishing Wheeler,” said Team Snickers/M&Ms pro Greg Pugh of Cullman, Ala., who has won more than $614,000 in FLW Outdoors events. “Of course, it can mess you up depending on if they’re pulling water or not pulling water. It’s going to fish a little bit different this year because of the lack of grass, but I’m looking forward to it.”
During the 2001 Stren Series Championship at Pickwick Lake, Pugh made the 90-mile round-trip run to Wheeler Lake every day and managed a fourth-place finish – just 1 pound, 3 ounces out of first place.
Pugh predicts the dominant way anglers will find fish will be on what he describes as a “ledge-style” bite. Pugh said that bass will tend to congregate in ditches that run eight to 10 feet deep on flats in two to three feet of water near stump rows in bends and near mussel shell beds. Pugh said anglers will target fish with spinnerbaits, 1/2-ounce jigs, 10-inch Berkley PowerWorms and possibly topwater baits.
“It will probably take 13 pounds a day to make the cut and 151/2 the last day to win,” Pugh said. “I’ve had opportunities to win there in the past, but you’ve got to figure in we’re fishing against a creature, and they don’t always do what we want them to do.”
Anglers will take off from Ingalls Harbor located at 802 Wilson St. NW in Decatur, Ala., at 6:30 each morning. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will be held at Ingalls Harbor beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Walmart store located at 2800 Spring Ave. SW in Decatur beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The Wheeler Lake Stren Series tournament is hosted by the Decatur-Morgan County Convention & Visitor’s Bureau.
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, browse FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.