The field will be made up of 77 Pros and 77 Co-Anglers who qualified through various arenas:
FLW Tour – 40
FLW Series – 30
FLW Strens – 5
BFL – 1
TBF – 1

To view the completed roster and for more information click here.

Post from: EveryJoe

Forrest Wood Cup Qualifiers – Finalized

Alvin Shaw Wins The Chevy Open In Detroit

photo credited: Rob Newell / FLW Outdoors

   Kellogg’s Pro, Alvin Shaw won FLW’s Chevy Open this past weekend in Detroit. He defended his day 3 lead with a day 4 sack that weighed 18-13 lbs. earning him the $200,000 payday. His 4 day total of 80-14 lbs. beat out 2nd place finisher and local Pringles Pro, Vic Vatalaro by just 3 ounces.

   Shaw used tube baits ripped from grass in the “Miles Road” area of Lake St.Clair to catch most of his bigger bass. When that bite slowed, he then switched to Berkley Gulp Leech on a drop-shot rig.

   As the regular season FLW Tour has wrapped up, they will now be able to set the Forrest Wood Cup field and crown the Land O’ Lakes Angler of the Year. Look for those results in a post to follow. To view the Chevy Open results click here.

University of Arkansas – Little Rock Claim the Title

U of Ark – Little Rock celebrate Victory,
photo: College Bass/ESPN Outdoors

   After the weights were zeroed out for day 3, the largest sack of the tournament was brought to the scales by Trent Gephardt and Jeremy Reese of the University of Arkansas – Little Rock weighing in at 21.24 lbs. Enough to claim the College Bass National Championship Title.

   The pair beat out Texas A&M’s Scott Edmonds and Andrew Shafer by using a homemade jig that they call the “money maker”. The 3 day event went from Lake Maumelle to a “mystery” body of water that turned out to be a small set of stocked ponds east of Maumelle.

   To see the final results of the tournament click here.

Post from: EveryJoe

Weekend Review: Shaw Wins Detroit & U of Ark are Champs

     Local Pro and favorite, Vic Vatalaro caught the big bag of the day with 21-11 lbs. “I couldn’t get Erie to do the job so I changed up and went to St.Clair instead”, Vatalaro said. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place weights all came from Erie.

     The FLW Tour has been relatively quiet all year long, not making much noise and seemingly fishing events that have produced mild weights by comparison to the Elite Series. The drama of the AOY race and the Forrest Wood Cup cut this weekend, all topped off with record setting catches, is just what the FLW Tour needs to end the season on a high note.

     For the full day 1 story click here.

Post from: EveryJoe

FLW Tour New Record Set After Day 1

     I am not exactly sure why or how the consideration to reduce the day format started. If I had to guess, I would assume that it was an effort to help reduce resource costs on FLW’s part while increasing angler participation. As we all know participation is down across all boards due to the increase in gas prices and the weakened economy. With the amount of money that we as anglers have been forced to pay into our fuel tanks, it makes it harder for striving anglers to continue to put up money for lodging, food, and equipment costs. So reducing the events to a 3 day format makes sense for everybody. But I still think that there is another change that could be made to increase participation.

     As I stated, speculation had suggested that a change would have the events running from Thursday through Saturday. I for one have been preparing myself to begin competing in the Stren Series events. The change would definitely improve my ability (financially) to participate but it would still remain difficult to get all of the time needed to fully compete. Many of the anglers competing in the events have the time to take off from work to get a full practice in and compete without hesitation. On that same note, many of the anglers struggle to find the time away from work. My only suggestion, if this would be a move to help increase participation, would be schedule the events to run Friday through Sunday. Over a 3 event schedule, that is three vacation days that many of the anglers would get back.  

Post from: EveryJoe

My Opinion on 3 Day Strens

Current Qualifiers:

For more information go to:
http://flw.flwoutdoors.com/championship.cfm?cid=1

Post from: EveryJoe

Current 2008 Forrest Wood Cup Qualifiers

     With a 4 day total of 29-11 lbs, Lynchburg, VA native David Dudley earned his 5th win this weekend on the Fort Loundon Tellico Lakes. “This win means a lot to me because I did it using what used to be my biggest weakness and that’s deep cranking”, Dudley said.

     Dudley cranked his way to victory coming from a 4 and a half pound deficit over three day leader Art Ferguson, earning him a $125,000 payday. His key area was a ledge with a boulder type area sticking out the side of it into the main river channel in the upper end of Fort Loudon. He cranked waters 10-12 ft. deep with a crankbait that was hand painted in a blue-back herring color by fellow pro, Craig Powers. Maybe Powers should have kept it.

     The win was enough to move Dudley into 5th for the Land O’ Lakes AOY standings. To view the final results of the event, click here.

Post from: EveryJoe

David Dudley Takes Fort Loudon

     Joe will also be again joined by Referee Mark Randolph. The show will premier on Friday night at 9:30 anchoring the Friday Night Fishing lineup on the Outdoor Channel. The first round of competition will take place on Lake Sydney Lanier in Georgia with the title round moving to Lake Dardanelle in Arkansas.

Here is the 2008 Line-up:

FLW:
David Walker
Andy Morgan
Scott Martin
Dan Morehead
Dave Lefebre

BASS:
Boyd Duckett – Defending Champion
Kelly Jordan
Ish Monroe
Mark Davis
Byron Velvick

This year for the first time will also have two legendary anglers competing:
Legends:
Roland Martin
Harold Allen

Be sure to check out the Ultimate Match Fishing Website by clicking here

Post from: EveryJoe

UMF Returning This Summer

     In a tournament where limits proved difficult, it was Vienna, VA’s Shayne Berlo and his 4 day total of 20-12 lbs. that helped earned him the All-American title and $100,000 on Hot Springs, AR’s Lake Hamilton. Berlo used a 3/8 oz rootbeer/pumpkin pepper jig which he helped design for Hunter Creek Baits. “I had plenty of confidence in this bait. It is just awesome”, Berlo told FLW media.

     Berlo’s victory was set-up in a dramatic fashion by past All-American champion Kim Carver. Carver entered the stage to weigh-in the final bag of the day. Needing around 4 lbs. to take the lead, Carver invited Berlo along with his 5 year old daughter Alana up to the stage. As Carver reached his hand into his bag for one final fish after weighing in 3 for 3 lbs and needing just 1 more pound for the lead, he pulled out an empty hand and congratulated Berlo on his victory.

     As I said, the tournament proved tough for many giving way to an easy top 16 for those who were able to limit out on all days of competition. Berlo targeted docks, willow grass lines, and bluff banks around the Route 70 bridge area by presenting his jig deep into the cover and swimming it out.

Top 10 Finishers:

1st: Shayne Berlo of Vienna, Va., 20-12
2nd: Kevin Snider of Elizabethtown, Ky., 20-09
3rd: Chris Martinkovic of Liberty Township, Oh., 20-07
4th: Greg Ricard of Leesville, Sc., 20-06
5th: Michael Conley of Bainbridge, Ga., 20-05 
6th: Kim Carver of Milledgeville, Ga., 19-13
7th: Terry McWilliams of Greenfield, Ind., 19-3
8th: Mike Brueggen of Cashton, Wis., 19-0
9th: Brett Sellers, Denham Springs, La., 18-9
10th: Ray Griffin of Henderson, N.C., 17-6

To read the full story and results, go to: http://bfl.flwoutdoors.com/tournament.cfm?cid=2&t=news&tday=3&atype=6&tid=6065&tyear=2008&aid=148616

Congratulations Shayne Berlo on you victory!

Post from: EveryJoe

Shayne Berlo Wins BFL All-American

     FLW Outdoors released the site of the 2009 Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League All-American championship event for 2009. The honor was given to the Quad Cities and their Mississippi River in Iowa.

     Having hosted numerous other FLW sanctioned events in the past to include the 1998 Forrest Wood Cup, the tournament will offer $1 million in cash and prizes to the nation’s best weekend anglers.

     To read the full release story go to: http://www.flwoutdoors.com/article.cfm?id=148595

Post from: EveryJoe

2009 BFL All-American Site Revealed

     I guess you can only make so much money on a lure before it’s presence is known. I am sure that is the case with Sebile’s Magic Swimmer. After Kenyon Hill won on Clark’s Hill with it earlier this year, the buzz is out and much sooner than it took the general public to get the inside on the last years prized Basstrix Paddle Tail Tube Swimbaits which accounted for huge successes with Steve Kennedy and an Angler of the Year title as credited by Jay Yelas. Regardless, there is one single common denominator here and that is swimbaits. Unfortunately I have many, but one I don’t have yet is the Magic Swimmer and I fear that if I don’t get it soon, the demand is going to be obscene if it isn’t already.

     For the rest of you who are already in the know and aware what is going on with this bait, I am sure it became evident once we saw it for ourselves gracing the likes of over half of the final day top 12 Elite Series anglers the past two tournaments. What is also impressive is that these are tournaments in which the blueback herring was the focus of attention and the anglers where catching them on colors that didn’t even resemble the blueback. I can only guess that the action and size of the bait is so appealing and lifelike that color became a minor priority to throwing one period.

     There’s a trend that’s slowly working back out of the soft plastic swimbait craze as their hard bodied cousins are proving to be just as effective in all of the same places and last much longer. It’s much cheaper to replace the hooks and split rings on a hard bait each outing than to replace the soft bait itself after each fish. This alone is the single biggest factor that has my attention.

      While I don’t have an exact dollar amount of how much money this bait has accounted for in the last two Elite series tournaments, I can guarantee you it is over $200,000. I don’t know what the FLW has going on with this thing but I assure you they are throwing it too. Believe me when I say that I will be doing my best to try and get ahold of one of these.

Post from: EveryJoe

Sebile Magic Swimmer, Secret Weapon of ‘08?