Wal-Mart BFL Louisiana Division to Visit Atchafalaya Basin

February 7, 2005

BELLE RIVER, La. — The Louisiana Division of the $8.4 million Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League will visit the Atchafalaya Basin near Belle River Feb. 19 for the first of five regular-season events. As many as 200 boaters and 200 co-anglers are expected to compete in the tournament, which will award as much as $39,000 in cash, including as much as $5,500 to the Boater Division winner.

Belle River Boat Landing in Belle River will host the takeoff and weigh-in at 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., respectively. Anglers will compete for prize money as well as points that count toward postseason competition. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points, with 200 points going to the winner, 199 for second, 198 for third, and so on except for the season-ending Super Tournaments, which award 300 points to the winner, 299 points for second, 298 for third, and so on.

If the winner is a participant in the Ranger Cup incentive program, he will receive a $1,000 bonus from Ranger Boats and $500 from Yamaha if his boat is powered by Yamaha. (Ranger will award $500 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant if not the winner, and Yamaha will kick in $250 if the boat is powered by Yamaha.) If the winning boater uses only Garmin electronics during the event and at least one product is a qualifying unit, Garmin will also award a $1,000 bonus. Bombardier will award $1,000 to the winning boater if the winner’s boat is equipped with a qualifying Evinrude Direct Injection outboard. That’s a potential top award of $8,500 for anglers who meet contingency guidelines.

The winning co-angler will earn as much as $2,750 cash. The angler who catches the biggest bass of the day in the Boater Division will earn as much as $1,000, and the co-angler big-bass winner will earn as much as $500.

The top 40 boaters and co-anglers in each of the BFL’s 28 divisions at the end of the season are eligible to advance to regional competition. Seven $110,000 regional championships will each send six boaters and six co-anglers to the 2006 All-American championship, which will feature a $1 million purse and a top award as high as $140,000. Anglers who compete in all five regular-season events within a division but do not advance to regional competition are eligible to compete in the Chevy Wild Card Regional, which will also send six boaters and six co-anglers to the All-American for a championship field of 48 boaters and 48 co-anglers.

The top 40 Louisiana Division boaters and co-anglers will advance to the Lake Ouachita Regional near Hot Springs, Ark., Oct. 18-22 and will compete against anglers from the Cowboy, Okie and Ozark divisions for an All-American slot. The top 40 anglers from each division may also advance to the EverStart Series in 2006.

Louisiana Division anglers will next visit Lake D’arbonne in Farmerville, La., March 19 for their second regular-season event, followed by an event on Bayou Black in Gibson, La., April 16. The division’s fourth qualifying event will be held on the Red River in Natchitoches, La., May 21. A two-day Super Tournament, the division’s fifth and final event, will be held on the Atchafalaya Basin in Belle River, La., Oct. 1.

If the Feb. 19 tournament is not yet full, entries will be accepted at tournament registration, which will be held Feb. 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Belle River Boat Landing located at 1600 North Levy Hwy. in Belle River. Entry fees are $200 for boaters and $100 for co-anglers. A $25 late fee also applies to entries taken on site along with a $25 membership fee for anglers who are not yet members of FLW Outdoors.

In BFL competition, boaters supply the boat and compete from the front deck against other boaters. Co-anglers compete from the back deck against other co-anglers.

As the nation’s leading provider of affordable, close-to-home weekend tournaments, the BFL is widely credited with opening competitive bass fishing to the masses. It also serves as a steppingstone for anglers who wish to advance to the EverStart Series and ultimately the Wal-Mart FLW Tour – bass fishing’s most lucrative tournament series. Former BFL anglers who have become fishing superstars on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour include Kellogg’s pro Clark Wendlandt, Ranger pro Tommy Biffle and four-time FLW Tour champion David Fritts.

Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League and seven other national tournament circuits offering a combined $30 million in awards through 214 events in 2005. The 27-year-old organization is the purveyor of America’s largest and most prestigious fishing tournaments, including the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series.

For more information or to enter a tournament, call (270) 252-1000 or browse this Web site.

Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1997 and today is the title sponsor of all FLW Outdoors events.

For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.

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