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COLEMAN LEADS STREN SERIES EVENT
ON
“Today was fantastic,” said Coleman, who is 63
years old and one of the oldest anglers competing in FLW Outdoors events.
“I’ve been doing the same thing the last three days and things just kept
improving. I moved up the ranking everyday. I feel really confident about
this. My practice was great and I have just been really fortunate. Although,
my slim lead is nothing on this lake. It’s a beautiful fishery with lots of
big bass.”
“I think the key to me being where I’m at now
is that I have caught a good kicker fish each day that has culled out one of
my smaller ones.”
“My plan for tomorrow is to keep doing what I
have been doing. I am just going to go fishing and have a great time. If I
win, I win. If I don’t, I don’t. I’m just proud to be where I am at.”
Coleman has been fishing staging areas close to
visible beds. He has been throwing a Texas-rigged YUM Dinger in 20 feet of
water to catch his impressive three-day stinger of bass.
Rounding out the top five pros are yesterdays
leader and the FLW Outdoors record holder for the heaviest two-day weight in
Stren Series competition, Dan Schoonveld of Mansura, La. (15 bass, 76-4);
Rick Turner of Tyler, Texas (15 bass, 74-2); Tim Reneau of Seguin, Texas (15
bass, 65-15);
Also clearing the top 10 cut weight of 60
pounds, 1 ounce in the Pro Division are Robert Robinson of Mobile, Ala.;
Ronnie Eschete Jr. of Thibodaux, La.; Stephen Johnston of Hemphill, Texas;
Barry Smith of Palo Pinto, Texas; and Kellogg’s pro Jim Tutt of Longview,
Texas.
Rick Turner also earned $295 for the Snickers
Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to an amazing 14-pound, 8-ounce
giant-of-a-bass he caught on a prototype bait the he is helping to design.
With this, Turner also walked his way into the FLW Outdoors record books
earning him the first place spot on the list of heaviest tournament fish
caught on any level of FLW Outdoors bass competition. He beat the second
heaviest fish by a slim 3 ounces which was caught on the California Delta
during a Stren Series event in 2006.
Overall there were 826 bass weighing 2,411
pounds, 9 ounces caught by 197 pros Friday. The catch included 136 five-bass
limits.
Pros are competing for as much as $65,000,
including a 519VX Ranger powered by Evinrude or Yamaha if contingency
guidelines are met, and valuable points
toward qualifying for the $1 million Stren Series Championship in
Jimmy Ballard of
“This is amazing, I’m still in awe,” said
Ballard, who is leading his closest competitor by a whopping 14-pound,
10-ounces. “It is really surprising. I never expected to have a weight like
this. My goal when I first got here was to at least make the top-10 cut. I
have fished really similar water over the last three days and everything has
just worked like clockwork. Today, It seemed like I couldn’t do anything
wrong.”
“My plan for tomorrow is to just go fishing and
see how things turn out.”
Ballard has been fan-casting a Texas-rigged
Senko around eight feet of water trying to target bedding bass.
Rounding out the top five
Also clearing the top 10 cut weight of 46
pounds, 7 ounces in the Co-angler Division are Jacob Brown of Clyde, Texas;
Robert Ballard of Del Rio, Texas; Clark Franklin of Midland, Texas; Jim
Behnken of Floresville, Texas; and Matt Williams of Nacogdoches, Texas.
Rick Parker of Kaufman, Texas, earned $148 for
the Snickers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 9-pound,
12-ounce bass.
Overall there were 650 bass weighing 1,736
pounds, 12 ounces caught by 197 co-anglers Friday. The catch included 77
five-bass limits.
The top 40 co-anglers from each Stren Series
division will also advance to the championship, where they will fish for as
much as $70,000. The highest-finishing co-angler from each division at the
championship will then advance to the 2008 Forrest Wood Cup.
Anglers will take off at 6:30 Saturday morning
from Lake Amistad Marina, East Diablo Launch Ramp, located at Hwy 90 W. HCR
3 in
Stren Series tournaments are four-day events consisting of two rounds. The
entire field competes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. At the conclusion of
Friday’s weigh-in, the field is cut to the top 10 pros
FLW
Outdoors historically maintains a 98 percent live release rate in all of its
bass tournaments.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger
Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour,
Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart
Texas Tournament Trail presented by Abu Garcia, Ranger Owners Tournament
Championship Series, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League,
Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW
Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer
combined purses of nearly $43 million through 241 events in 2007.
Wal-Mart and many of
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its
tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.
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