OSAGE BEACH, Mo. – The $6.5 million Stren Series is headed to Lake of the Ozarks Oct. 1-3 for a $260,750 bass tournament. As many as 400 pros and co-anglers will be competing in the fourth Central Division tournament of the season for top awards of $65,000 and $30,000, respectively.
“Lake of the Ozarks is usually a good lake to fish in the fall,” said Mark Rose of Marion, Ark., who is seventh in the Stren Series Central Division points standings. “I’ve fished there in the fall the last four or five years, and it seems like it fishes a bit differently every year. One thing that you can count on when the water level and clarity is normal is the shad start coming up and the bass start grouping up around docks and backs of pockets.”
Rose said he will rely on a spinnerbait, buzzbait and white swimming jig to catch daily limits as long as the fish are up shallow. Rose said wind definitely will help push the shad up and contribute to a shallow catch.
“Some years the weights are up more than others, but I think a man who can put up 14 to 16 pounds a day will really show out in this tournament,” Rose said. “I may be way off. Some years the lake fishes really strong and some years it’s a little off.”
Rose said local anglers could have a bit of a home-water advantage in the Lake of the Ozarks event.
“There’s some great dock fishermen there,” Rose said. “Those guys that really know the docks or maybe have some brush around them will really have an advantage. And, of course, anybody on a jig pattern is going to catch the right kind of weight. Guys like Greg Bohannan and Dion Hibdon are going to be hard to beat.
“I don’t have time to find the right kinds of docks, so I’m going to keep a bait wet the whole time and try to get some fast-moving reaction bites,” Rose added.
Anglers will take off from Grand Glaize Recreation Area PB No. 2 boat launch located at 711 Public Beach Road in Osage Beach, Mo., at 7 each morning. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will be held at Grand Glaize Recreation Area beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Walmart store located at 4252 Highway 54 in Osage Beach beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The Lake of the Ozarks Stren Series tournament is hosted by the Tri-County Lodging Association.
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.
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, two and three, with the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers advancing to day four based on their three-day accumulated weight. Winners are determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from all four 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 has taken fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing, offering the largest awards possible in the history of fantasy sports.
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.