Cartright-Annin win Stratos Owners Tournament Trail event on Lake Seminole

The Team of Howard Cartright (left) of Havana, Fla., and Heath Annin of Tallahassee, Fla., won the inaugural Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail event on Lake Seminole near Bainbridge, Ga. The anglers earned $4,225.

February 18, 2006 • MLF • Archives

BAINBRIDGE, Ga. – The Team of Howard Cartright of Havana, Fla., and Heath Annin of Tallahassee, Fla., won the inaugural Stratos Owners Tournament Trail event on Lake Seminole near Bainbridge, Ga. The anglers earned $4,225.

Cartright and Annin’s two-day winning catch of 10 bass weighed 41 pounds, 14 ounces. The anglers caught their bass on 3/8-ounce Terminator spinnerbaits as well as flipping heavy mats with a craw worm and 1 1/4-ounce weight.

The anglers had a productive first day. One of their bass, a 6-pound, 14-ouncer, earned them $162.50 for the big-bass award on day one.

By 1 p.m. on day two, however, their luck seemed to have changed, as they only had 6 pounds in their livewell. They decided to return to flipping the heavy mats, where they were able to round out their day-two weight of 20 pounds, 4 ounces.

Rounding out the top five teams were David Johnson and Terry Stevens, both of Marianna, Fla. (10 bass, 41 pounds, 13 ounces, $2,115); Randall Carter of Maplesville, Ala., and Rickie Knight of Selma, Ala. (10 bass, 33 pounds, 11 ounces, $1,690); Paul Anthony of Dawson, Ga., and Brian Davis of Leesburg, Ga. (10 bass, 31 pounds, 9 ounces, $1,268) and Hinton Day of Laurel Hill, Fla., and Ed Wilkerson of Sneads, Fla. (nine bass, 30 pounds, 8 ounces, $839).

Andrew Beeman of Tampa, Fla., and Joe O’Steen of Plant City, Fla., earned the big bass award on day two with an 8-pound, 12-ounce largemouth.

The next Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail regional event will be held March 16-18 on Lake Ouachita in Hot Springs, Ark., followed by an event on the Santee Cooper Lakes in Manning, S.C., April 14-15. Another event will be held on the California Delta April 21-22 near Stockton, Calif., followed by an event on the Bay of Quinte in Belleville, Ontario, July 22 and 23. The final regional event will be held August 4-5 on Lake Erie near Brownstown, Mich.

The top 35 teams from the Lake Seminole, Lake Ouachita, Santee Cooper Lakes and Lake Erie regionals as well as the top 20 teams from the California Delta and top 10 teams from the Bay of Quinte regional will be invited to the 2006 Stratos Owners’ Championship held Oct. 6-7 on Old Hickory Lake in Gallatin, Tenn. The winning team from each of the stateside regionals will also advance to the 2007 $2 million, no-entry-fee Forrest Wood Cup where they will compete in the Co-angler Division.

Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $36.9 million through 241 events in 2006.

Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1997 and today is the title sponsor of all FLW Outdoors events. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.