Sponsor teams advance three top-10 finishers at Beaver Lake

Castrol well-oiled fishing machine in Division I; Skippy secures win in Division II

There were no close calls among sponsor teams competing in the Wal-Mart Open; the winners in each division were as clear as the water fished by FLW Tour anglers at Beaver Lake. The considerable point spreads extended down the line. The narrowest margin in Division I – a healthy five and a half points – separated second and third place; Division II’s tightest race was a six-point battle for fifth. The March 31-April 3 tournament, held near Rogers, Ark., was the fourth stop along the FLW Tour in 2004, leaving only two regular-season events left to determine which teams will ultimately vanquish their rivals in this unofficial competition. Beaver Lake provided a stark contrast to the tour’s last event on Old Hickory Lake, in which sponsor-team places were decided by gaps as slim as one point.

Each of the 14 teams – comprising two divisions of seven, with Division I having teams with three or more pros and Division II hosting teams with fewer than three pros – will compete again May 12-15 at Kentucky Lake near Gilbertsville, Ky. Results from Beaver Lake are detailed below.

Division I

Castrol pro Carl Svebek raised a few eyebrows among pros and writers taking part in FLWOutdoors.com’s “Pundits’ Picks” column after he seemingly took the easy path to prognostication and selected his team members as the go-to guys for Beaver Lake. However, Svebek had the last laugh as his picks cashed in big-time – he easily topped the pundits – and Division I results are proof positive that his team was hot at the Wal-Mart Open. After two second-place finishes in 2004 tournaments for Team Castrol, the groomsmen stepped up to the altar and wed themselves to a first-place finish. Second-place Team Fujifilm trailed behind by nearly 15 points.

The win gave Team Castrol a powerful surge in the overall points standings among sponsor teams, slicing the 33-point lead first-place Team Kellogg’s had after the third event of the season to just more than two points. Leading the charge for Castrol was pro Mike Surman of Boca Raton, Fla., who landed his second top-10 finish of 2004 by placing eighth at Beaver Lake.

Though Team Castrol gained much ground in year-to-date points, the overall standings list was nearly a carbon copy of that presented after Old Hickory Lake, with the only movement consisting of Team Tyson and Team 7UP changing places for fifth and sixth places, respectively.

Division II

Team Skippy reprised its role as a first-place finisher, taking top honors at Beaver Lake like it had at the second tourney of the season. Team Banana Boat was the strongest challenger in Division II, garnering its second consecutive runner-up finish and trailing Skippy by 10 points at the Wal-Mart Open.

Thanks to Satsuma, Ala., pro Jason Kilpatrick’s seventh-place finish at Beaver, Team Skippy strengthened its stranglehold on the No. 1 slot in the year-to-date standings, further widening the chasm between first and second place to an astonishing 67 points. Banana Boat, solidly in second place with a 77-point lead over third, currently has the best of overtaking Skippy before the season’s end.

Explanation of team scoring

Points in the 2004 sponsor-team race will be earned during the FLW Tour’s six qualifying events and monitored throughout the season. Standings are based on the average number of points earned by a team’s anglers as assigned in the FLW Tour’s Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year competition.

Each of the 14 sponsor teams competed in the most recent FLW Tour tournament at Beaver Lake near Rogers, Ark., and results from that event have been tallied:

Division I – Beaver Lake results (teams with three or more anglers)

1. Castrol – 143.80

2. Fujifilm – 129.17

3. Tyson – 123.67

4. Kellogg’s – 113

5. Snickers – 90.66

6. 7UP – 74.33

7. Land O’Lakes – 61.25

Division II – Beaver Lake results (teams with two or fewer anglers)

1. Skippy – 194

2. Banana Boat – 184

3. Ozark Trail – 118.50

4. Energizer – 105

5. BFGoodrich Tires – 92

6. Lawry’s – 86

7. Pedigree – 70.50

Other noteworthy performances at Beaver Lake among anglers on sponsored teams – besides Kilpatrick’s and Surman’s top-10 finishes – included an outstanding fourth-place finish from “Mr. Beaver Lake,” Team Kellogg’s pro Clark Wendlandt of Cedar Park, Texas; a top-notch 14th-place finish from Team Kellogg’s pro Jim Tutt of Longview, Texas; and a strong 17th-place effort from Banana Boat’s Kevin Vida of Clare, Mich.

Current overall standings for sponsor teams competing unofficially on the 2004 FLW Tour have been tallied:

Division I (teams with three or more anglers)

1. Kellogg’s – 557

2. Castrol – 554.80

3. Snickers – 481.24

4. Fujifilm – 473.33

5. Tyson – 444.33

6. 7UP – 412

7. Land O’Lakes – 362.50

Division II (teams with two or fewer anglers)

1. Skippy – 645

2. Banana Boat – 578

3. Lawry’s – 501

4. BFGoodrich Tires – 465.50

5. Pedigree – 464.50

6. Ozark Trail – 428

7. Energizer – 296