BFL Bama Division to Kick off Season on
Guntersville Lake

February 22, 2005

SCOTTSBORO, Ala. — The Bama Division of the $8.4 million Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League will visit Guntersville near Scottsboro March 5 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.

Goose Pond Marina in Scottsboro 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 Wild Card, 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 Bama Division boaters and co-anglers will advance to the Lake Toho Regional near Kissimmee, Fla., Oct. 4-8 and will compete against anglers from the Bulldog, Seminole and South Carolina divisions for an All-American slot. The top 40 anglers from each division may also advance to the EverStart Series in 2006.

Bama Division anglers will next visit Weiss Lake in Cedar Bluff April 9 for their second regular-season event, followed by an event on Guntersville Lake in Scottsboro May 7. The division’s fourth qualifying event will be held at Neely Henry Lake in Gadsen June 4. A two-day Super Tournament, the division’s fifth and final event, will be held on Guntersville Lake in Scottsboro Sept. 17-18.

If the March 5 tournament is not yet full, entries will be accepted at tournament registration, which will be held March 4 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Wal-Mart located at 24833 John T. Reid Parkway in Scottsboro. 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.

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.

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

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