RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Pro Matt Herren of Trussville, Ala., caught a five-bass limit weighing 15 pounds, 11 ounces Saturday and overcame a 4-pound deficit to win $100,000 in the $1 million Wal-Mart FLW Series BP Eastern Division tournament on Lake Dardanelle with a four-day catch of 20 bass weighing 62-10.
The catch gave him the win by a slim 5-ounce margin over Larry Nixon of Bee Branch, Ark., who caught a total of 20 bass weighing 62-5 and earned $48,841.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Herren, who notched his first FLW Outdoors win at Lake Dardanelle. “I’ve always said you’ll win when you least expect it. I went out this morning behind Nixon – one of the best bass fishermen who’s ever fished.
“All I kept telling myself was to just worry about my performance and to maximize whatever I can however I can and whatever is going to happen will happen,” Herren added. “I knew I had a mountain to climb, but I couldn’t really worry about it, and the good Lord blessed me.”
Nixon, who won the FLW Tour’s National Guard Open at Lake Norman in Concord, N.C., in late April, said he entered the last day with a plan and high hopes.
“The first thing this morning I went to my best spot and I made a short cast so I wouldn’t catch one on the first cast, and I fired the worm out there and caught my big fish, and I said, `Game on, boys,'” Nixon said. “After that, it was all stripers. A school of stripers had taken over my gravel bar, and it was every cast with a worm that I’d catch a striper. I stayed around there about three hours trying to figure it out.
“I worked hard and came up with the string of fish that I did, and that’s the best I could do,” Nixon added. “That’s bass fishing.”
Herren opened the tournament in 33rd place Wednesday with five bass weighing 14-1 that he caught on a black/blue and purple jig with a sapphire chunk trailer while fishing the main river channel. On Thursday he added another five bass weighing 15-8 using the jig and a Lucky Craft Rick Clunn Model RC 1.5 crankbait to gain ground to 11th place. After the first two days of competition, Herren said the water muddied up quite a bit and he caught five bass weighing 17-6 on the jig and the RC 1.5 crankbait Friday to make the crucial top 10 cut in fourth place. On Saturday he sealed his victory using the same jig and RC 1.5 crankbait. Herren said he fished the last two days of competition in one area – the mouth of the Illinois Bayou and the Arkansas River.
Rounding out the top five pros are David Walker of Sevierville, Tenn. (20 bass, 61-6, $39,073); David Lawson of Richmond, Ky. (20 bass, 59-13, $29,305) and Derek Remitz of Madison, Ala. (20 bass, 56-11, $19,536).
Theron Caldwell of Fort Worth, Texas, caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Pro Division Friday – a 7-pound, 1-ounce largemouth – that earned him the day’s Snickers Big Bass award of $488.
Overall there were 47 bass weighing 113 pounds, 6 ounces caught by 10 pros Saturday. The catch included nine five-bass limits.
Terry Chapman of Stanley, N.C., won the Co-angler Division and $20,000 Friday with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 40 pounds, 2 ounces followed by Ben Hand of Memphis, Tenn., in second place with 13 bass weighing 30-13 worth $9,835.
Chapman opened the tournament in first place Wednesday with five bass weighing 13-3 while fishing with pro Kota Kiriyama of Moody, Ala. On Thursday he slipped to second place with a five-bass catch weighing 13-9 while fishing with pro Herren. He wrapped up the win Friday with a five-bass catch weighing 13-6 while fishing with pro Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C.
“I drew a partner that was fishing the same type of water and the same basic bait that I was fishing, so I was comfortable with that,” said Chapman, who notched his third FLW Outdoors victory. Chapman also has two FLW Tour wins as a co-angler – his most recent at the Fort Loudoun-Tellico Lakes event at Knoxville, Tenn., in late March.
“You always worry about who you’re going to draw in a tournament and if their presentation is going to be compatible with the way you want to fish,” Chapman said. “But we started fishing shallow, and I caught a keeper pretty quick and that put my mind at ease. I caught a few more and actually had my limit by 11:30.”
Chapman said he fished a Rad Lures Chatterbait all three days of competition.
“The first day I fished shallow in a stumpy area,” Chapman said. “The second day we fished rocks shallow and I stuck with the Chatterbait. I fished that Chatterbait around stumps, rocks and grass.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Bud Strader of Rockwood, Tenn. (11 bass, 30-3, $8,851); Ron Fabiszak of South Bend, Ind. (11 bass, 29-13, $7,868) and Jerry Weisinger of Wyandotte, Okla. (11 bass, 29-8, $6,884).
Eugene Moore of Little Rock, Ark., caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Wednesday – a 6-pound, 1-ounce largemouth – that earned him the day’s Snickers Big Bass award of $295.
FLW Outdoors historically maintains a 98 percent live release rate in all of its bass tournaments.
Coverage of the Lake Dardanelle FLW Series tournament, which featured 394 anglers representing 33 states, will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program airing July 15. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to approximately 350 million households in Europe, Africa and Asia, making it the most widely distributed weekly fishing program in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 servicemembers stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.
The next FLW Series BP Eastern Division tournament, hosted by the City of Plattsburgh, N.Y., will be held Sept. 5-8 on Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh, N.Y. Boats will launch from Wilcox Dock in Plattsburgh and the final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart located at 25 Consumer Square in Plattsburgh.
After four qualifying events are complete in the BP Eastern Division, the top 30 pros and 30 co-anglers will advance to the BP East-National Guard West Fishoff Jan. 17-19, 2008, where they will face the top 30 pros and 30 co-anglers from the National Guard Western Division for a shot at advancing to the $2 million, 2008 Forrest Wood Cup. The winning pro at the Forrest Wood Cup will earn as much as $1 million – the sport’s biggest award.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail presented by Abu Garcia, Ranger Owners Tournament Championship Series, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses of nearly $43 million through 241 events in 2007.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most-respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Walmart.com.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.