One of the largest and richest professional bass tournaments in the West gets under way today. The FLW-Stren Western Series Pro/Am tournament will field up to 400 fishermen (200 pros and 200 co-anglers or amateurs) from throughout the Western United States and features a purse of approximately $275,000. The tournament is based out of the Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa.
The four-day event kicks off at daylight and wraps up on Saturday. The tournament operates out of Konocti Harbor today, Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, the weigh-in switches to Clearlake and operates out of Wal-Mart, located on Dam Road. The weigh-in for the first three days begins at 3 p.m. Saturday”s final weigh-in at Wal-Mart starts at 4 p.m.
The entire field of 200 boats competes during the first three days of the tournament. The field is then cut to 10 boats (10 pros and 10 ams) for Saturday”s final round. Winners in both divisions are determined by the heaviest weight for the four days.
The tournament is a true pro/am format as the pros and amateurs fish separately. Each fisherman is allowed to weigh in five fish per day.
The pros supply the boats, fish from the front of the boat and compete against other pros. Amateurs fish from the back of the boat and compete against other amateurs. The entry fee is $825 for pros and $325 for co-anglers.
Pros are in competition 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/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.
The top co-angler receives $5,000 cash and a $30,000 Ranger boat and trailer if contingency guidelines are met.
Competitors also are vying for valuable points that could earn them a trip to the $1 million Stren Series Championship on Nov. 5-8 at Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri. There they will have a shot at winning $140,000 in the pro division and $70,000 in the co-angler division.
After four qualifying events are complete in each Stren Series area — Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western — the top 40 pros and 40 co-anglers based on Angler of the Year points earned in each area advance to the championship. The top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers from each division also qualify for the 2009 Wal-Mart FLW Tour and Wal-Mart 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 also qualify for the $2 million 2009 Forrest Wood Cup, where pros will fish for as much as $1 million.
FLW is one of the largest professional bass tournament organizations in the nation. FLW also sponsors walleye tournaments in the Midwest as well as ocean fishing tournaments.
One of the favorites in the Clear Lake tournament is Lakeport”s Jared Stone, who won the WON BASS pro/am tournament held at Clear Lake with a two-day weight of 47.5 pounds last weekend. He also won last year”s FLW-Outdoors Stren Series held at Clear Lake.
Another favorite in the tournament is Jimmy Reese of Witter Springs. Reese has won nine boats and more than $400,000 on the bass tournament circuit during an 11-year career.
Some of the other Lake County fishermen entered in the tournament as pros such as Mark Crutcher of Lakeport, Jeff Billings of Clearlake, Bob Higgins of Clearlake Oaks, Bob Myskey of Nice, Wayne Breazeale of Kelseyville and Tim Hendricks of Lakeport.
In addition to California other states represented in this week”s tournament include Alaska, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Oregon.
The 400 tournament fishermen are expected to spend more than $300,000 at local motels, gas stations, tackle shops and restaurants.
