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GOODWIN, STRADER LEAD WAL-MART FLW SERIES EVENT ON
Weaver wins co-angler title, $20,000
LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. (Feb. 2, 2007) – Pros Mike
Goodwin of Lake Havasu City, Ariz., and Phil Strader of Glide, Ore., are tied
for first place going into the final day of competition on Saturday. Both
anglers caught an impressive three-day sack weighing 32 pounds Friday to lead
the $1 million Wal-Mart FLW Series National Guard
Western Division tournament on
Goodwin’s bag of three fish weighed 7-2 where
Strader’s five-fish limit weighed 10-15.
“Today should have been the day,” said Goodwin, who
has led every day of this tournament thus far. “I stumbled a little bit today. I
just had some bad luck. I had more bites today than I have the rest of the week
combined. I just couldn’t execute.”
“It feels great to be where I am at. I am not going
to change anything for tomorrow. Most of the boat pressure will disappear and
that should leave me by myself. If I do pull this off, it will be a life
changing experience. I’m excited,” he said.
Goodwin is covering a lot of water throughout his
day running and gunning from spot to spot targeting natural structure with
finesse gear.
I’m right where I want to be,” said Strader, who
has only been fishing with FLW Outdoors since 2003 and has already amassed over
$20,000 and has captured four top-10 finishes. “If I can get the bites in the
morning, I’ll be right there at it. I almost had a perfect day today but I did
lose one fish late in the day.”
“My mind is clear and I’m ready for tomorrow. I’m
just going to go out have some fun, it’s just fishing,” he said.
Strader’s plan of attack is fishing his two main
spots, which are points and breaklines, with finesse jigs. The main structure he
is looking for is in the depth range of 3 to 15 feet of water.
Jay Yelas caught a three-day total of 14 bass weighing 29 pounds using a
Berkley jig fished in shallow, backwater areas to advance to the final round as
the No. 2 seed.
“I push poled for four hours to get the my first
spot this morning,” said Yelas, who has put away his big fiberglass bass boat
and pulled out his much lighter, aluminum G3 boat to reach his fishing areas.
“Once I got back there, I had my limit in about thirty minutes. If the water
drops anymore, I won’t be able to get back there tomorrow. I will have to go
look for something else.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Mike Phua of
Also clearing the top 10 cut weight of 21 pounds,
15 ounces in the Pro Division are Gary Dobyns of
National Guard Pro Team angler, Tim Klinger of
Boulder City, Nev., earned the day’s $488 Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro
Division thanks to a 6-pound, 6-ounce bass.
Overall there were 233 bass weighing 492 pounds, 14
ounces caught by 195 pros Friday. The catch included 8 five-bass limits.
Pros
are competing this week for a top award of $125,000 plus valuable points in the
hope of qualifying for the
BP East-National Guard West
Fishoff and a shot at advancing to
the $2 million, 2008 Forrest Wood Cup, where the winning pro will earn as much
as $1 million – the sport’s biggest award. The top 30 pros from both FLW Series
divisions after four qualifying events are complete will advance to the
Larry Weaver of
Weaver opened the tournament in 40th place
Wednesday with one bass weighing 2 pounds while fishing with pro Danny Locatis
of
“It’s amazing, I can’t even put it into words,”
said Weaver, who said he couldn’t have done it without the help of the great pro
partners he had all week. “I had a lot of things go my way this week and I am
very grateful for that. To beat 194 of some of the greatest anglers in the sport
is truly amazing.”
“I just talked to my wife a few minutes ago and she has already started shopping. What’s leftover will be used to ensure my fishing for a little while longer.”
Weaver was throwing a drop-shot rig throughout the
entire event targeting submerged structure to catch his bass
Rounding out the top five
Rodney Rinta of
Overall there were 99 bass weighing 198 pounds, 3
ounces caught by 195 co-anglers Friday.
The 10 remaining pros will take off at 7:30
Saturday morning from Lake Havasu State Park/Windsor Park located at 699 London
Bridge Road Lake Havasu City, Ariz. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at
the Wal-Mart store located at 1795 Kiowa Boulevard in Lake Havasu City, Ariz.,
beginning at 4 p.m.
Children will also be treated to a Family Fun Zone prior to Saturday’s weigh-in
from noon to 4 p.m. at Wal-Mart. Activities in the Family Fun Zone include the
Fujifilm trout pond, a Ranger boat simulator and assorted fishing-themed games.
All activities are free and open to the public.
FLW Outdoors historically maintains a 98 percent live release rate in all of its
bass tournaments.
Coverage of the Lake Havasu FLW Series tournament
will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the
