SHREVEPORT, La. – One of California’s own will fish for a share of $800,000 at the Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship presented by Castrol Sept. 11-14 on Cross Lake near Shreveport, La.
Aaron Martens of Castaic, Calif., qualified as the No. 16 seed in a field of 48 Pro Division anglers and will fish head-to-head against No. 33 seed Rob Kilby of Hot Springs, Ark., for the first two days of competition. The angler with the heaviest weight will advance to the semifinal round of 24 anglers.
Martens earned his best Wal-Mart FLW Tour finish in 2002 with a second-place effort on Wheeler Lake near Rogersville, Ala., in February. A consistent angler, Martens never finished outside of the top 30 in any 2002 Wal-Mart FLW Tour event. His career earnings on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League and the Ranger M1 exceed $135,000. This was his second year on the FLW Tour and his second championship appearance.
Kilby, a seven-year veteran of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, has three career top-10 finishes and earnings of more than $203,000. In 2002, his best finish was an 11th-place effort on Old Hickory Lake near Gallatin, Tenn., in May. This is his fifth consecutive championship appearance.
This year’s Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship features a setup unlike any bass-fishing championship in the history of the sport. The 48 pros who qualified based on their year-end point total will be seeded so fishing fans can keep up with their favorite anglers in a bracket-style competition similar to the NCAA basketball playoffs. The No. 1 seed will fish head-to-head against the No. 48 seed; the No. 2 seed will compete against the No. 47 seed and so on.
The top 48 pros will fish for a combined two-day weight to eliminate half the field for the semifinal round on day three. The 24 semifinalists will continue in head-to-head competition on day three, after which the field will be cut to 12 finalists.
On day four, the remaining 12 anglers will be reseeded according to their total weight from the first three days of competition. Anglers seeded No. 1 and No. 2 will compete for the first- and second-place cash awards of $260,000 and $55,000. The No. 3 and No. 4 seeds will compete for third- and fourth-place money of $34,500 and $29,000, and so on. The pro who finishes last in the no-entry-fee championship will take $2,000.
Co-angler competition will end on day three. A full field of 48 co-anglers will fish for a combined two-day weight to advance to the 24-slot final round. Weights are then cleared, with the weight on day three determining the Co-angler Division champion, who will collect $25,000 cash. The co-angler finishing 48th will receive $500.
Named after Ranger Boats founder, Forrest L. Wood, the Wal-Mart FLW Tour is run by FLW Outdoors, the world’s leading marketer of competitive fishing tournaments. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1996 and has since expanded its sponsorship of FLW Outdoors’ fishing tournaments to include the EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Circuit and Ranger M1. FLW Outdoors will award anglers as much as $22 million in 2002 through 170 tournaments nationwide.