Former competitive angler reels in $15,000 in FLW Fantasy Fishing event

Retired snowbird can’t get enough fishing

MINNEAPOLIS – Charles Alexander of Toledo, Ohio, now has a real tall fishing tale to tell after winning $15,000 by playing FLW Fantasy Fishing presented by Straight Talk held in conjunction with the Walmart FLW Tour on Lake Guntersville, the final stop of the 2011 season. Alexander correctly picked Walmart FLW Tour pro Paul Elias of Laurel, Miss., to win the event reeling in perhaps one of his biggest catches.

“I used to fish in the Tri-State Bass League and competed against a lot of the FLW anglers including Elias,” said Alexander, a retired GM maintenance electrician. “I knew he was good with crankbaits, even though that is not how he won (referring to the Alabama rig that took the tournament by storm). It still worked out okay for me.

“I live in Michigan, during the summer and then head south for the winter. I have a place on Lake Okeechobee in Florida so that I can fish every day,” continued Alexander. “I love to compete and Fantasy Fishing is one way I can stay on top of the sport. I am very familiar with a lot of the anglers, so it was easy for me to select my teams. I used Player’s Advantage the first two years, but forgot to renew my subscription this year. It contains a lot of good information about the lakes and anglers I don’t know.”

Sharing a tall tale, Alexander stated that he had caught a 45-pound stringer on Lake Okeechobee back in 2008 during an FLW tournament and that if he would have been entered in the event he would have won the tournament. When asked if he was going to fish in the 2012 FLW Tour season opener on Lake Okeechobee, the fishing junkie replied that he needed to fish every day and that he would never make it through the two-week off-limits period.

Alexander’s Fantasy Fishing team was led by Elias and earned him 2,180 valuable points that were added to his already accumulated points from the rest of the 2011 FLW Tour season. Players have been competing all season long for a chance at the $100,000 grand prize that will be announced in early November.

Fantasy Fishing is free to play, but fans can gain an edge with Player’s Advantage. Player’s Advantage is a unique tool that offers additional resources and information, and those with Player’s Advantage have won at a rate of four-to-one. An added benefit to purchasing Player’s Advantage is receiving access to the FLW Outdoors Magazine e-Edition.

Finishing in second place on the fantasy side of the Lake Guntersville event was Larry Stubbs of Springdale, Ark., who won $5,000. Third place went to Rich Buchinski of Dickson, Pa., who won $1,000. Several other winners from California to Florida took home prizes ranging from $500 cash to $10 Walmart gift cards.

The 2011 Fantasy Fishing season consisted of 10 tournaments surrounding the Walmart FLW Tour with cumulative and individual tournament prizes. Fans competed for more than $25,000 in cash and prizes from each of the 10 tournaments and a top prize of $15,000. The cumulative grand prize is $100,000 with the overall runner-up winning a Ranger Z-520 boat with a Ranger Trail Trailer, 250 Mercury outboard, Minn Kota Maxxum 80 trolling motor, Lowrance electronics and trolling motor batteries – all valued at $54,000.

The third-place overall winner will win a Chevy 1500 Silverado valued at $38,000, and fourth place will take home a FinCraft 17 Dual Console boat with a 115 Evinrude outboard valued at $27,000. A BRP Can-Am Outlander 400 All-Terrain vehicle, valued at $8,000, will be awarded to the fifth-place finisher; while sixth- through 10th-place finishers will win Walmart gift cards ranging in value from $9,000 to $5,000.

TracFone Wireless, America’s largest “no-contract” cellular service provider is the official and exclusive mobile phone service provider of FLW Outdoors. Supporting a two-member professional fishing team, Team Straight Talk’s Scott Canterbury and J.T. Kenney competed in internationally televised events on the 2011 Walmart FLW Tour.

For updates, insider tips, tournament news and more, follow FLW Fantasy Fishing on Facebook at Facebook.com/FantasyFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWOutdoors.

About FLW Outdoors

FLW Outdoors is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world offering anglers worldwide the opportunity to compete for millions over the course of 191 tournaments in 2011. FLW Outdoors has taken fishing mainstream with the world’s richest fantasy sports game, FLW Fantasy Fishing presented by Straight Talk, where competitors can play for free as well as sign up for Player’s Advantage to gain an edge. For more information about FLW Outdoors and FLW Fantasy Fishing, visit FLWOutdoors.com or FantasyFishing.com.