Bernie Schultz of Gainesville, Chuck Economou of Redington Shores, Roger Crafton of Boca Grande and Scott Martin of Clewiston will each represent the Sunshine State in a field of 48 Pro Division anglers.
Schultz qualified as the No. 8 seed and will fish head-to-head against No. 41 seed Mark Pack of Mineola, Texas, for the first two days of competition. The angler with the heaviest weight will advance to the semifinal round of 24 anglers.
Schultz has six career top-10 FLW Tour finishes, including an eighth-place finish at the 2002 Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake near Rogers, Ark., in April. His career earnings are in excess of $228,000. This is his fifth championship appearance. Pack put together two top-10 finishes on the FLW Tour in 2002, including an eighth-place finish on Old Hickory Lake near Gallatin, Tenn., in May and a sixth-place finish at the Wal-Mart Open. Pack, who has also competed in the EverStart Series, the Ranger M1 and the Texas Tournament Trail, has amassed more than $140,000 in career earnings since 2000.
No. 27 seed Economou had his best finish in 2002 at the season opener on Florida’s Lake Okeechobee in January with a 16th-place effort. He is a seven-year veteran of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and has also fished the EverStart Series, the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League and the Texas Tournament Trail. His career earnings total more than $127,000. He will fish against No. 22 seed Guido Hibdon of Gravois Mills, Mo. Hibdon, like Economou, has fished the Wal-Mart FLW Tour since its inception in 1996 and has earned close to $190,000 via the FLW Tour and the Ranger M1. This is Hibdon’s fifth championship appearance.
No. 31 seed Crafton will fish against No. 18 seed Chris Baumgardner of Gastonia, N.C., during days one and two. Crafton is making his first Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship appearance after five years fishing the series. Crafton is an accomplished angler on the EverStart Series and the BFL. He has more than $100,000 in career earnings. Baumgardner put together his best FLW Tour season to date in 2002 after seven years on the series. This is his second FLW Tour championship appearance. Baumgardner’s career earnings on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and the Ranger M1 total nearly $75,000.
Stanley pro Martin, son of bass-fishing legend Roland Martin, qualified in the No. 44 spot and will compete against No. 5 seed Sam Newby of Pocola, Okla., during the first two days of competition. Martin fished his way into the top 10 in two 2002 tournaments, earning fourth-place finishes on New York’s Lake Champlain in June and Alabama’s Wheeler Lake in February. Martin, who is making his third championship appearance, has earned more than $213,000 since 1999 via the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the Wal-Mart BFL and the Ranger M1. Newby earned his first Wal-Mart FLW Tour victory in 2002 along with a $210,000 paycheck by winning the Forrest Wood Open on Lake Champlain in June. He also finished ninth on Lake Okeechobee in January. Through the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the EverStart Series and the BFL, Newby has earned more than $261,000. This is his first championship appearance and his first full season on the FLW Tour.
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 BFL, 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.