STREN SERIES SOUTHEAST DIVISION TO CLOSE ON THE SANTEE COOPER LAKES

Top bass anglers looking to qualify for $1 million Stren Series Championship, $2 million Forrest Wood Cup

MANNING, S.C. (March 21, 2006) – The $6.5 million Stren Series is headed to the Santee Cooper Lakes April 11-14 for a $275,225 bass tournament presented by Yamaha. As many as 400 pros and co-anglers from 20 states will be competing in the last Southeast Division tournament of the season for top awards of $65,000 and $35,000, respectively.

Many pros have already scouted the Santee Cooper Lakes, and they expect to see a lot of quality fish cross the weigh-in stage come tournament time.

“It should be a pretty impressive event,” said Team Slim Jim pro Michael Murphy of Gilbert, S.C., who has amassed $36,500 in career earnings with FLW Outdoors. “We should see some really good fish weighed in during this event. We will probably see some fish in the 8 to 10 pound range with some five-bass limits weighing 20 to 25 pounds per day. The fish right now are looking to move up and spawn but the weather has kept them from that. By the start of the event they should be spawning. With the spawn and current weather trend, this event has the potential to break a few FLW Outdoors records.”

“The weather will be key to this event. If it stabilizes and warms up it is sure to be an impressive event. Fish could be caught doing a number of things. Anglers could follow a prespawn, spawn or postspawn patterns. Some anglers will be flipping shallow structure while others will be cranking deeper cuts and ditches. It’s all dependent on the weather.”

Anglers will take off from John C. Land III Landing located at County Road s-14-260 in Summerton, S.C., at 7 each morning. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will also be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 481 West Boyce Street in Manning, S.C., beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

The Santee Cooper Lakes Stren Series tournament is hosted by the Claredon County Chamber of Commerce.

Pros will fish for a top award of $25,000 plus a $40,000 519VX Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor, Lowrance electronics and EverStart batteries if contingency guidelines are met. Ranger will award another $3,000 to the winner if he or 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 will match 50 percent of Ranger Cup earnings if  “Powered by Yamaha” guidelines are met.

Co-anglers will cast for a top award of $5,000 plus a $30,000 Ranger boat and trailer if contingency guidelines are met.

Competitors will also be vying for valuable points that could earn them a trip to the $1 million Stren Series Championship on the Mobile Delta in Mobile, Ala., Nov. 8-11 for a shot at $140,000 in the Pro Division and $70,000 in the Co-angler Division. After four qualifying events are complete in each Stren Series division – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western –  the top 40 pros and 40 co-anglers based on Angler of the Year points standings from each division will advance to the championship. The top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers from each division will also qualify for the 2008 Wal-Mart FLW Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Series, bass fishing’s top professional circuits, where they can compete for a share of $17.5 million. The highest-finishing pro and co-angler from each division at the Stren Series Championship will also qualify for the $2 million 2008 Forrest Wood Cup, where pros will fish for as much as $1 million – the most lucrative award in bass fishing.

In Stren Series competition, pros supply the boats, fish from the front deck against other pros and control boat movement. Co-anglers fish from the back deck and compete against other co-anglers. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points that determine angler standings. Two hundred points are awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 points for third, and so on. The full field competes on days one, two and three, with the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers advancing to day four based on their three-day accumulated weight. Winners are determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from all four days.

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 America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.

For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.

Awards are based on a 200-boat field.

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