Walmart BFL tournament preview
Bama, Michigan, Northeast, Shenandoah and South Carolina division events slated for July 12
The 2014 Walmart BFL season continues with five tournaments on Saturday, July 12. The Bama Division is headed to Lake Neely Henry, the Michigan Division will hit the Detroit River, the Northeast Division takes on Oneida Lake, the Shenandoah Division will fish on the Potomac River and the South Carolina Division will compete on Lake Murray. Up to 400 boaters and co-anglers will be competing in each event for top awards up to $8,000 and $3,000 respectively.
When: Saturday, July 12
Bama Division
Lake Neely Henry
Coosa Landing
200 Lake Street
Gadsden, Ala.
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
Notes: The bass fishing on Lake Neely Henry is expected to be good. The bass will be in their summer patterns and both largemouth and Alabama-spotted bass could come to the scale. Anglers are likely to target grass, docks and the main-river points and structure. Jigs, topwater baits, crankbaits, swimbaits and finesse baits will be popular options. The wining weight is expected to be about 16 pounds.
Michigan Division
Detroit River
Elizabeth Park Marina
200 Grosse Ile Parkway
Trenton, Mich.
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
Notes: The bass fishing on the Detroit River should be excellent. Anglers will fan out between the Detroit River, Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair. Most of the competitors will target postspawn and summer pattern smallmouth around grass beds and offshore humps covered with gravel and rocks. Popular baits will include jerkbaits, drop-shot rigs, swimbaits, tubes, topwater baits and crankbaits. The winner is expected to cross the stage with about 22 pounds of smallmouth bass.
Northeast Division
Oneida Lake
Oneida Shores County Park
9400 Bartell Road
Brewerton, N.Y.
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
Notes: The bass fishing on Oneida Lake should be very good. The bass will be in their summertime patterns and anglers will have the opportunity to target both largemouth and smallmouth bass. The smallmouth are likely to be found offshore around humps, rock piles and schools of bait while the largemouth will be found around the lakes plentiful shallow grass and docks. Topwater frogs, drop-shot rigs, jigs, Texas-rigged soft plastics, topwater baits and swimbaits will be in the hands of many of the competitors. The winner is expected to have 17 pounds of bass.
Shenandoah Division
Potomac River
Smallwood State Park
2750 Sweden Point Road
Marbury, Md
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
Notes: The bass fishing on the Potomac River is expected to be good. The competitors will be faced with the task of picking bass out of the grass beds the Potomac is famous for, as well as shoreline wood and rocks. The tide will also be a key factor and timing it will be very important. Baits such as topwater frogs, jigs, swimjigs, ChatterBaits, a variety of soft plastics and crankbaits could all be successful. It is projected to take a five-bass limit weighing around 17 pounds to win this event.
South Carolina Division
Lake Murray
Dreher Island State Park
3677 State Park Road
Prosperity, S.C.
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
Notes: The bass fishing on Lake Murray should be good. In some ways, this event will be a preview of the Forrest Wood Cup there in August. Many anglers will target bass in typical offshore locations or chasing blueback herring in the main lake. Some will also fish around shoreline grass and docks. Additionally, competitors could opt to fish for largemouth around bream beds as the tournament takes place the weekend of the full moon. Topwater baits, drop-shot rigs, Carolina-rigs, soft plastics, jigs and deep crankbaits will be popular choices. The winner is expected to bring in a five bass limit around 17 pounds.
Walmart BFL overview
The BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 120 tournaments throughout the season, five in each division. The top 40 boaters and co-anglers from each division qualify for a regional tournament and are competing to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the Walmart BFL All-American presented by Chevy. Top winners in the BFL can move up to the Rayovac FLW Series or even the Walmart FLW Tour.
For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the BFL on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.
About FLW
FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2014 over the course of 229 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW" television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world. FLW is committed to providing a lifestyle experience that is the “Best in Fishing, On and Off the Water.” For more information about FLW and FLW Fantasy Fishing, visit FLWOutdoors.com or FantasyFishing.com and look for FLW on Twitter and Facebook.