Virtual Championship 2006: Bracket 8
Opening round – Bracket 8: Nixon vs. Cochran
Virtual Championship 2006
Opening round – Bracket 8: Nixon vs. Cochran
Another exciting season of tour-level pro bass fishing drew to a close in record-smashing fashion last week on Lake Champlain, leaving only the Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship on the horizon before 2006 is etched forever in the history books. FLWOutdoors.com will once again host its own “virtual championship” – a featured daily poll where readers can make their own picks and weigh in on who they think will be crowned champion during the Aug. 2-5 year-ending event on Logan Martin Lake in Birmingham, Ala.
In the days leading up to the championship, FLWOutdoors.com will ask readers to vote on who they think will advance in each of the daily bracket challenges (polls are located on the right-hand side of the FLW Outdoors and FLW Tour home pages). After each day’s votes are tabulated, the virtual championship bracket will be immediately updated to reflect the readers’ choices.
Will fishing fans correctly forecast the winner of this year’s championship? Vote each day to support your favorite qualified angler and to learn more about the 48 pros who will actually compete on Logan Martin Lake for a top prize of $500,000.
Today’s featured bracket matchup: Larry Nixon (No. 8) vs. George Cochran (No. 41)
Larry Nixon – No. 8 seed: A nine-year tour veteran out of Arkansas, Nixon has baits in his tackle box older than some of the sport’s young hotshots against whom he fishes on a daily basis. One of the true pioneers of tournament bass fishing, he is threat to win anywhere, anytime, as evidenced by his two FLW Tour victories, eight top-10 finishes and more than $640,000 in FLW Outdoors career earnings. Nixon consistently vies for the tour standings title and is accepting his eighth bid to the FLW Tour Championship, having missed the big show only once, in 2004, during his illustrious FLW Tour career. This season unfolded in a typically Nixonian fashion for him; he earned checks in five out of six events and never finished worse than 81st place. While he didn’t make any cuts out of the opening round this season, his season-best showing of 16th place, at Lake Okeechobee, and consistent finishes in the top 60 easily earned him his championship berth as the No. 8 seed. In fact, Nixon caught a limit every day he fished in FLW Tour competition this year except two, and those were at a stingy Pickwick Lake where he earned a check nevertheless.
George Cochran – No. 41 seed: Cochran came into the 2006 season as the defending FLW Tour Championship winner. Winning a half-million dollars on his home water, Lake Hamilton, last year in front of his hometown fans and family in Hot Springs, Ark., Cochran said, was the highlight of his career. And as a nine-year FLW Tour veteran and longtime tournament veteran, a storied career it is. With two FLW Tour victories, six top-10 finishes and more than $732,000 in career earnings, he has cemented his legacy not only as a true pioneer of the sport but as a continuing force at every tournament he fishes. This year, Cochran didn’t rest on his championship laurels; he posted top-60, money-winning finishes at four out of six events in the regular season, topped by a 23rd-place performance at Kentucky Lake. While he won’t have the home-water advantage at this year’s championship at Alabama’s Logan Martin Lake, this well-heeled tour veteran has certainly fished there before and is always a threat to do well.
Virtual Championship 2006 (click for complete details and poll results)
Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship 2006 (click for more information)
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