CLAYTON, N.Y. – Pro Mike Desforges of Burlington, Ontario, caught a five-bass limit weighing 21 pounds, 3 ounces Thursday to capture a lead in the Stren Series BP Eastern Division tournament on 1,000 Islands. With a two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 40-09, he now holds a 5-ounce lead over second place pro Trevor Jancasz of White Pigeon, Mich., who managed to haul in a total of 10 bass weighing 40-04 during the first two days of competition.
“I’m doing a lot of jumping around; I went about 30 miles from the launch to get to my first spot, then hopped around, going about 50 miles from the launch,” Desforges said. “I’ve been moving around a lot.”
Desforges said he caught smallmouth mostly on tube baits in 5 to 15 feet of water.
“I’m planning on doing the same thing tomorrow,” Desforges said. “I’m pretty sure there are still fish in the areas I’m fishing.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Hugh Worth III of Erie, Pa. (10 bass, 39-00); Charlie Hartley of Grove City, Ohio (10 bass, 37-06); and Michael Iaconelli of Runnemede, N.J. (10 bass, 36-09).
Monte Knight earned $211 for the Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to a 5-pound, 10-ounce bass.
Overall there were 610 bass weighing 1,658 pounds, 15 ounces caught by 126 pros Thursday. The catch included 113 five-bass limits.
Pros are competing for as much as $65,000, including a 198VX Ranger powered by Evinrude or Yamaha if contingency guidelines are met, and valuable points toward qualifying for the $1 million Stren Series Championship in Branson, Mo., Nov. 5-8 for a shot at $140,000. After four qualifying events are complete in each of the circuit’s five divisions, the top 40 pros from each division will advance to the championship. The highest-finishing pro from each division at the championship will also earn a spot in the $2 million 2009 Forrest Wood Cup, where they will compete against top pros from the Wal-Mart FLW Tour®, Wal-Mart FLW Series®, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League® and TBF (The Bass Federation) for bass fishing’s biggest prize – $1 million.
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Kenneth Roderick Jr. of Putnam, Conn., leads the Co-angler Division in the chase for a top award of $35,000, including a 198VX Ranger if contingency guidelines are met. He caught five bass weighing 16-15 while fishing with pro Daniel Welch of New Martinsville, W.Va., Wednesday and five bass weighing 16-05 while fishing with pro Mark Frickman of Grand Ledge, Mich., Thursday for a total of 10 bass weighing 33-04.
“It was cooler yesterday; it wasn’t bad today,” Roderick said. “Sometimes you’d rather stay at about second or third to take off the pressure, but it feels pretty good, actually, to be in the lead.”
After catching all smallies yesterday, Roderick caught a mixture of largemouth and smallmouth bass today using three different baits–tubes, Senkos and drop-shots, and plans to bring in a limit using tubes and Senkos tomorrow.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Dustin Edwards of Ellington, Conn. (10 bass, 33-02); Trudy Noechel of Lost Creek, W. Va. (10 bass, 32-02); Jeff Zeisner of Avra, Ontario (10 bass, 31-00); and Jason Adamson of New Market, Ontario (10 bass, 30-10).
Brian Wisniewski earned $113 for the Snickers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 6-pound, 9-ounce bass.
Overall there were 458 bass weighing 1,163 pounds, 2 ounces caught by 126 co-anglers Thursday. The catch included 66 five-bass limits.
The top 40 co-anglers from each Stren Series division will also advance to the championship, where they will fish for as much as $70,000. The highest-finishing co-angler from each division at the championship will then advance to the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup.
Anglers will take off at 6:30 each morning from French Creek Marina located at 250 Wahl St. in Clayton, N.Y. Friday’s weigh-in will be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 20823 NY State Route in Watertown, N.Y., beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
Stren Series tournaments are four-day events consisting of two rounds. The entire field competes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. At the conclusion of Friday’s weigh-in, the field is cut to the top 10 pros and co-anglers based on the heaviest three-day accumulated weights. These anglers continue competition Saturday, with the winners determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from all four days.
FLW Outdoors historically maintains a 98 percent live release rate in all of its bass tournaments.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2008 alone the organization is offering more than 90,000 anglers the chance to win over $40 million through 230 tournaments in 10 circuits targeting bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass. FLW Outdoors is also taking fishing mainstream with the largest cash awards in the history of fantasy sports, $7.3 million.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.