Mississippi River bass tourney fifth stop on $4.4 million tour schedule
GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. – With just two tournaments remaining in the regular season, Clark Wendlandt of Cedar Park, Texas, is holding firmly to the Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year lead with 271 points. Randy Howell of Trussville, Ala., however, would like to loosen Wendlandt’s grasp with a strong showing at the $500,000 Wal-Mart FLW Tour stop in Memphis, Tenn.
Howell trails Wendlandt by 55 points going into the tour’s fifth event, which runs May 17-20 on the Mississippi River. And a first place round-one finish in Memphis would give him 75 points, enough to substantially close the gap depending on Wendlandt’s finish.
Stephen Browning of Hot Springs, Ark. (209); Tommy Biffle of Wagoner, Okla. (204); and Carl Svebek III of Sam Rayburn, Texas (195) also will be looking to move up in the points standings in Memphis.
The winner of the Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year title will be featured on a special series of Kellogg’s cereal boxes and receive $25,000 plus a Johnson- or Evinrude-powered Ranger 518 VX bass boat.
Also on the line in Memphis will be $100,000 first place cash in the Pro Division and $15,000 in the Co-Angler Division. A full field of 175 anglers will compete in each division.
Among competitors vying for a share of the lucrative awards are Rick Clunn of Ava, Mo., who last month won the Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake in Arkansas and collected $200,000, and Gary Klein of Weatherford, Texas, who won last year’s Memphis tournament. Additionally, rookie Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla., will be looking to repeat the heroics that earned Team Timex its first FLW Tour victory on the Pascagoula River. And Svebek seems poised for victory with a top-10 appearance in each of the past two tournaments. A win by Svebek would be the first of the season for the Land O’Lakes team, which has had an angler in the top 10 of each tournament this year.
Clunn’s win at the Wal-Mart Open propelled him to the top of the FLW Tour’s all-time money winner’s list with $442,100. Wendlandt is second on the list with $383,750 followed by David Fritts of Lexington, N.C., with $373,548.
Fishing enthusiasts nationwide can take part in the action by visiting www.flwtour.com and entering the VISA $2 Million Challenge for a chance to win $1 million if an FLW Tour competitor catches a state record largemouth, smallmouth or spotted bass. The angler who catches a state record bass also will receive $1 million.
Competition begins May 17 with anglers taking to the water for two days of competition. After the two-day first round, the top 10 anglers from each division advance to round two, where the pros compete for one day to qualify for the five-man final round. Co-angler competition ends after round two.
Jefferson Davis Park is the site of each day’s 6 a.m. take-off. Weigh-ins for the first two days of competition also will be held at the park at 3 p.m. Friday’s takeoff will be at 8 a.m. Weigh-ins Friday, May 19, and Saturday, May 20, will be held at the Wal-Mart Supercenter located at 8400 Highway 64 in Bartlett, Tenn., at 5 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. respectively.
Coverage of the tournament on ESPN is scheduled to air June 3 at noon EST. Additionally, the tournament’s final weigh-in will be broadcast live to the electronics department of more than 2,400 Wal-Mart stores nationwide starting at 3:30 p.m. EST Saturday, May 20.
The event will feature colorful NASCAR-styled Chevy tow vehicles and Ranger Comanche fishing machines that are used by competitors in the final two rounds.