Posted by TJ on September 8, 2008, 9:05 am
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Stren Series Texas Division To Host Event On Red River
Top bass anglers looking to qualify for $1 million Stren Series Championship, $2 million Forrest Wood Cup
by Chad Gay
Page(s): 1
(Sep. 04, 2008 - Natchitoches, LA.)... The $6.5 million Stren Series™is headed to the Red River Sept. 24-27 for a $275,225 bass tournament. As many as 400 pros and co-anglers will be competing in the final Texas Division tournament of the season for top awards of $65,000 and $35,000, respectively.
"Normally we won’t see big weights this time of year," said Toby Hartsell of Livingston, Texas, who is the points leader in the Texas Division. "That being said, we’ll see several fish caught. It will be a good tournament."
Hartsell said anglers will throw a variety of baits, including crankbaits and jigs on the main river as well as spinnerbaits and topwater baits. The Red River poses a variety of options to anglers — fishing open water on the main river to fishing cover and vegetation in coves.
"It’s typical river fishing," Hartsell said. "You’ll get lots of bites out on the main river, and that may be a key deal this time of year."
Anglers will take off from Grand Encore Recreation Complex located at 234 Rufus Morgan Road in Natchitoches at 6:30 a.m. each morning. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins also will be held at Grand Encore Recreation Complex beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Walmart store located at 925 Keyser Avenue in Natchitoches beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The Red River Stren Series tournament is hosted by the City of Natchitoches.
Pros will fish for a top award of $25,000 plus a $40,000 198VX Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor and Lowrance electronics if contingency guidelines are met. Ranger will award another $3,000 to the winner if he or she is a participant in the Ranger Cup program. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $1,500 to the highest-finishing participant in the contingency program. Yamaha or Evinrude will match 50 percent of Ranger Cup earnings if "Powered by Yamaha" or "Powered by E-Tec" guidelines are met.
Co-anglers will cast for a top award of $5,000 plus a $30,000 Ranger boat and trailer if contingency guidelines are met.
Competitors will also be vying for valuable points that could earn them a trip to the $1 million Stren Series Championship on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Mo., Nov. 5-8 for a shot at $140,000 in the Pro Division and $70,000 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 Angler of the Year 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 2009 Walmart FLW Tour® and Walmart FLW Series®, bass fishing’s top professional circuits, where they can compete for a share of $19.5 million. The highest-finishing pro and co-angler from each division at the Stren Series Championship will also qualify for the $2 million 2009 Forrest Wood Cup, where pros will fish for as much as $1 million - 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, 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.
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 targeting bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, call (270) 252-1000.
Total awards are based on a full field of 200 boats in every tournament.
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