Anatomy of an FLW tournament

A Wal-Mart FLW bass tournament consists of a field of 200 professional anglers fishing against each other on a given lake over four days. The lakes change for each event – and often the anglers change, as well – but the goal is always the same: The angler who catches the most bass, measured by weight, wins the tournament.

Here’s a quick breakdown for how an FLW tournament works:

• 200 anglers fish on days 1 and 2, the “opening round,” to try and make the cut
• The top 10 anglers, based on each angler’s combined catch weight from days 1 and 2, make the cut and advance to fish on days 3 and 4
• For days 3 and 4, the “final round,” the top 10 anglers’ weights are each reset to zero and they fish for another two days to determine the winner
• The winner is the angler with the heaviest combined weight from days 3 and 4

Anglers are allowed to weigh in no more than five bass – what’s known as a “limit” – on any given day. Anglers are allowed to “cull” bass – that is, replace one bass in their livewell with a heavier one. They can have possession of no more than five bass in their livewell at any given time, however.

Catch weights vary from tournament to tournament, based on whether a lake has lots of bass, fewer bass, big bass or smaller bass. Some tournaments see many limits, others see relatively few of them. The same is true of relative fish size: Some tournaments see bigger ones, and others do not.

Still, the bottom line is always the same: To succeed in any given tournament, an angler’s goal is to catch more weight in bass than his competitors.

At the end of the tournament, all of the anglers are ranked according to how they finished in either the opening round or the final round. These are called the “tournament results,” and they determine the score of your fantasy picks.