$2.6 million Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour to visit Green Bay

Third stop of 2005 season slated for May 18-21

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour returns in 2005 for its fifth season, and Green Bay will host the tour’s third stop May 18-21. With a $2.6 million total purse, including the no-entry-fee $650,000 Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour Championship on the Mississippi River near Moline, Ill., Sept. 28-Oct. 1, and television coverage on Fox Sports Net, the FLW Walleye Tour is bigger and better than ever.

As many as 150 pros and 150 co-anglers will take on Green Bay for their share of a $471,000 purse, including as much as $90,000 for the winning pro and $17,000 for the winning co-angler.

“It’s going to be a great tournament,” said pro Carl Grunwaldt of Green Bay. “Guys will catch a lot of walleyes relatively shallow in 6- to 15-feet of water. It’s going to be a real good spinner bite.”

“I think it will take at least 35 pounds a day to win the event,” Grunwaldt said. “As long as we don’t get a severe cold front or a tremendous amount of rain before the tournament, it will be a great event.”

Metro Park Boat Launch in Green Bay will host daily takeoffs each morning at 7 a.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will also be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 2440 West Mason Street in Green Bay beginning at 4 p.m. The community is invited to attend daily takeoffs and weigh-ins, which are free and open to the public.

Pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day and fish for a combined boat weight. Pros compete against other pros, and co-anglers compete against other co-anglers. The full field competes during the three-day opening round for one of 10 final-round slots based on their three-day accumulated weight. Weights carry over to day four, with the winner determined by the heaviest four-day weight.

Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points, with 200 points awarded to the winner, 199 to second, 198 for third, and so on. These points determine angler standings. The top 50 pros and 50 co-anglers based on year-end points standings will advance to the 2005 Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour Championship, where a pro can earn as much as $125,000 cash for a win.

The FLW Walleye Tour Championship is the most lucrative event in professional walleye angling, with guaranteed cash awards for the entire field. A guaranteed cash award of $75,000 plus potential sponsor bonuses totaling $50,000 will go to the FLW Walleye Tour Championship winner for a total pro award of $125,000. The champion co-angler will win a guaranteed cash award of $11,000 plus potential sponsor bonuses totaling $11,000 for a total co-angler award of $22,000.

The FLW Walleye Tour will make its final regular-season stop at Devils Lake near Spirit Lake, N.D., June 15-18. Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour 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 and Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour.

For more information on FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, browse this Web site or call (270) 252-1000.

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.