FLORENCE, Ala. (Oct. 12, 2007) – Suave pro Mark Rose of Marion, Ark., caught a five-bass limit weighing 12 pounds, 1 ounce Friday to barely retain his lead in the $1 million Wal-Mart FLW Series BP Eastern Division tournament on Pickwick Lake. With a three-day catch of 15 bass weighing 46-15, he holds a slim 13-ounce lead over his closest competitor, Yamaha pro Terry Bolton of Paducah, Ky., heading into the final day of competition.
“I really wanted to widen my lead a little more than this today,” said Rose, who has been dominating the field over the first two days. “I didn’t want it to be this close at all. I think the lack of current and high, blue skies really hurt me today. I think my fish either packed up and left or they just weren’t eating. They just seemed to be acting funny today. I don’t know what it was. It took me to 15 minutes before check-in to catch my fifth fish.
“Who knows what tomorrow will hold. I may not even catch anything. I’m just going to go out there and be patient and fish slow. I’m just going to fish really hard and see what happens. I know the fish are there, I just have to catch them.”
Rose stayed with his deep jig pattern again Friday. He also said that he knows that the quality of fish he needs are deep and he just has to fish slow and meticulously to coax these finicky Pickwick bass into biting.
Terry Bolton caught a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 46-02 using a heavy football head jig dragged over deep, rocky structure to advance to the final round as the No. 2 seed.
“I was just hoping to chip into Marks lead some today,” said Bolton, who has yet to snag a FLW Tour or FLW Series win in his 12 year career. “At least we are going to make it fun. Everything went better than I expected today. I just wanted to get a limit and make the top-10 cut. It would be great to win one of these especially since I am about to get married. I sure could use the money.”
Rounding out the top five pros are BP pro Jim Moynagh of Carver, Minn. (15 bass, 44-12); Pedigree pro Greg Pugh of Cullman, Ala. (15 bass, 41-11) and Art Ferguson of St. Clair Shores, Mich. (15 bass, 40-11).
Also clearing the top 10 cut weight of 35 pounds, 10 ounces in the Pro Division are Chevy pro Larry Nixon of Bee Branch, Ark.; Tom Mann Jr. of Buford, Ga.; Brad Wilemon of Booneville, Miss.; Chevy pro Dion Hibdon of Stover, Mo.; and Jim Dillard of Bauxite, Ark.
Wal-Mart pro Trevor Jancasz of White Pigeon, Mich., earned the day’s $440 Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to a 5-pound, 13-ounce bass.
Overall there were 391 bass weighing 956 pounds, 7 ounces caught by 127 pros Friday. The catch included 27 five-bass limits.
Pros are competing this week for a top award of $125,000 plus valuable points in the hope of qualifying for the BP East-National Guard West Fishoff and a shot at advancing to the $2 million, 2008 Forrest Wood Cup, where the winning pro will earn as much as $1 million – the sport’s biggest award. The top 30 pros from both FLW Series divisions after four qualifying events are complete will advance to the East-West Fishoff, which will be held Feb. 14-16, 2008. The location for the fishoff has not yet been announced. Thirty winners from the fishoff will advance to the 2008 Forrest Wood Cup.
Berkley angler Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark., won the Co-angler Division and $25,000 Friday with a three-day total of 10 bass weighing 27 pounds, 9 ounces followed by Edward Gildernew Jr. of Zelienople, Pa., in second place with nine bass weighing 24-03 worth $9,131.
Blaylock opened the tournament in 111th place Wednesday with zero bass while fishing with Castrol pro David Dudley of Lynchburg, Va. On Thursday he jumped to 4th place on the strength of a five-bass catch weighing 13-08 while fishing with tournament leader Suave pro Mark Rose. He wrapped up the win Friday with another enormous five-bass catch weighing 14-01 while fishing with Berkley pro George Jeane Jr. of Evans, La.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Blaylock, who is only 20 years old. “I have came close so many times. It’s just great to finally win one. I came into this event with the intent to win. I knew I was really going to have to catch them to do so. I knew there would be a lot of great pros here and I was lucky to get three great partners. I’ve caught a lot of fish this week and it has just been a blast. This has turned out to be a really great tournament for me.”
Blaylock was also dragging a football head jig around deep structure all week to catch his tournament winning sack of fish.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Randy Clark of Pascagoula, Miss. (six bass, 20-03, $8,217); Kevin Koone of Greenbrier, Ark. (eight bass, 19-14, $7,305) and Gilbert Herald of Pittsburg, Texas (eight bass, 19-04, $6,391).
Matt Greenblatt of Oldsmar, Fla., earned $275 for the Snickers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 5-pound, 9-ounce bass he caught while fishing with pro Tim Farley of Lula, Ga.
Overall there were 143 bass weighing 358 pounds, 12 ounces caught by 85 co-anglers Friday. The catch included one five-bass limit.
The 10 remaining pros will take off at 7 Saturday morning from McFarland Park located on James M. Spain Dr. in Florence, Ala. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 3100 Hough Road in Florence, Ala., beginning at 4 p.m. Children will also be treated to a Family Fun Zone prior to Saturday’s weigh-in from noon to 4 p.m. at Wal-Mart. Activities in the Family Fun Zone include the Fujifilm trout pond, a Ranger boat simulator and assorted fishing-themed games. All activities are free and open to the public.
FLW Outdoors historically maintains a 98 percent live release rate in all of its bass tournaments.
Coverage of the Pickwick Lake FLW Series tournament will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program airing Dec. 16. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to approximately 350 million households in Europe, Africa and Asia, making it the most widely distributed weekly fishing program in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 servicemembers stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.
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 Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail presented by Abu Garcia, Ranger Owners Tournament Championship Series, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses of nearly $43 million through 241 events in 2007.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most-respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Walmart.com.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.