Fantasy Fishing Players Win Big
Steve Pasker of Waterloo, Iowa, was the top-scoring FLW Fantasy Fishing player in 2014 and won the season-long grand prize of $10,000. Pasker scored 12,081 points throughout the seven-event season (six Walmart FLW Tour events and the Forrest Wood Cup).
His victory closely mirrors Chevy pro Anthony Gagliardi’s 2014 season, which began with disqualification at the season opener and culminated with a Forrest Wood Cup win by 1 ounce over Scott Canterbury.
Pasker struggled in the first Fantasy Fishing event at Okeechobee, but he outlasted Michael Austin of Elmhurst, Pa., by just 2 points in the final standings to squeak through to victory.
“This is awesome,” says Pasker. “I didn’t think I had any chance after the first tournament of the year at Lake Okeechobee. I didn’t have a good finish at all in that tournament, but in the next six events I did pretty well.
“My strategy for each event was to target the local anglers, or the guys who had a lot of experience on the lake,” the winner adds. “I would try to stay away from the highest-salaried anglers, but I usually had Cody Meyer on my team for every tournament. I watch all of the pre-tournament videos that Rob Newell films for FantasyFishing.com as well. They are definitely a huge help.”
Pasker says that he plans to pay off his truck with his winnings and that he’s going to stick the rest away in a savings account.
Virgle Sutton of Austin, Texas, also cashed a fat check this week for winning the Forrest Wood Cup Fantasy Fishing contest. Sutton correctly picked seven of the top 10 anglers en route to victory, earning $5,000.
“I watched the weigh-in online every day,” says Sutton, who fished on the Walmart FLW Tour as a co-angler in 2009. “I tried to select anglers who I thought would be fishing both deep and shallow. I had studied the lake conditions for the tournament and chose anglers based on how their skills matched up.
“I had the tournament winner Anthony Gagliardi on my team, as well as third-place finisher Brent Ehrler,” Sutton continues. “I used the FLW Member’s Advantage tools, but I also did a lot of research on my own. I thought I’d score pretty high when seven of my guys finished in the top 10, but to actually win is great.”
Finishing in second place on the fantasy side for the Forrest Wood Cup was Shannon Davis of Benton City, Wash., who won $1,000, and in third was Rodney Allen of Clarkrange, Tenn., who won $500.
For more information on FLW Fantasy Fishing, and to see how your team stacks up against the winner’s, visit FantasyFishing.com.