JAMES RIVER TO HOST WAL-MART BASS FISHING LEAGUE SHENANDOAH
DIVISION TOURNAMENT RICHMOND, Va. (July 19, 2005) -
The Shenandoah Division of the $8.4 million Wal-Mart Bass Fishing
League will visit the James River near Richmond July 30 for
the fourth 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. Osborne Landing in
Richmond will host the takeoff and weigh-in at 6 a.m. and 2:30
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 Shenandoah Division boaters and co-anglers
will advance to the Clarks Hill Lake Regional near Augusta,
Ga., Oct. 11-15 and will compete against anglers from the Choo
Choo, Dixie and North Carolina divisions for an All-American
slot. The top 40 anglers from each division may also advance
to the EverStart Series in 2006. A two-day Super Tournament,
the Shenandoah Division's fifth and final event, will be held
on the Potomac River in Dumfries Sept. 10-11. For more information
or to enter a tournament, call (270) 252-1000 or visit FLWOutdoors.com.
If the July 30 tournament is not yet full, entries will be accepted
at tournament registration, which will be held July 29 from
4 to 7 p.m. at the Wal-Mart located at 7430 Bell Creek Road
in Mechanicsville. Entry fees are $200 for boaters and $100
for co-anglers. 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
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