Lake Guntersville next up for Stren Series Southeast Division

Southeast Division to close regular season with Oct. 8-10 tourney

GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. – The $6.5 million Stren Series is headed to Lake Guntersville Oct. 8-10 for a $260,750 bass tournament. As many as 400 pros and co-anglers will be competing in the final Southeast Division tournament of the season for top awards of $65,000 and $30,000, respectively.

“I am really looking forward to this tournament,” said Team M&Ms pro Greg Pugh of Cullman, Ala. “This is such a great lake to fish, and everyone will be catching fish. Anybody can win; it is not impossible that the winning weight will be 85 to 90 pounds. You might kill yourself catching 3-pound bass only to find out it will take 6- or 7-pounders to win.”

Pugh believes that the fish to catch will be in shallow water, 8 feet or less, and that most any bait will work: buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, swinmbaits or topwater frog baits to name a few.

“You can catch a good string of fish; the key is finding a good patch of grass,” he added. “From novice to pro anglers will be catching fish – it’s going to be fun!”

Anglers will take off from Lake Guntersville State Park located at 7966 Alabama Highway 227 in Guntersville, Ala., at 7 each morning. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will be held at Lake Guntersville State Park beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Walmart store located at 11697 U.S. Highway 431 in Guntersville, Ala., beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

The Lake Guntersville Stren Series tournament is hosted by Marshall County Convention & Visitors 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.

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.

Top point earners from the Walmart FLW Tour, Walmart FLW Series, Stren Series, Walmart BFL, and the National Guard FLW College Fishing National Champion will advance to the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup in Atlanta, Ga., which will be held at Lake Lanier.

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.