SOUTH HILL, Va. (Sept. 26, 2009) – Pro Joel Richardson of Kernersville, N.C., caught five bass weighing 10 pounds, 15 ounces Saturday to win the Stren Series Northern Division tournament on Lake Gaston with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 36 pounds, 9 ounces. For his victory, Richardson earned $15,048 cash and a 198VX Ranger Boat powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor and Lowrance electronics.
Richardson opened the tournament in fourth place after catching five bass that weighed 12-1. On Friday, he caught five bass that weighed 13-9 and made the top-10 cut in first place.
Rounding out the top five pros were Team Kellogg’s pro Dave Lefebre of Union City, Pa. (15 bass, 33-5, $6,019); Chris Baumgardner of Gastonia, N.C. (13 bass, 33-4, $4,815); Ivan Morris of Virginia Beach, Va. (15 bass, 29-15, $4,214); and Billy Bledsoe of Fayetteville, N.C. (15 bass, 29-10, $3,612).
Daniel McGinnis of Lansdowne, Ohio, caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Pro Division Thursday – a 5-pound, 5-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Folgers Big Bass award of $211.
Charles Gandee of Efland, N.C., won the Co-angler Division and a 177TR Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and trailer, with a three-day total of eight bass weighing 20 pounds, 14 ounces.
Gandee caught three bass weighing 7-2 Thursday while fishing with pro Michael Ertel of Toms River, N.J., to open the tournament in third place. On Friday he caught five bass weighing 13-12 to make the top-10 cut in first place while fishing with pro Chris Novack of Mansfield Center, Conn. Finally, on Saturday, he sealed the win even though he failed to catch a keeper while fishing with Richardson.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers were Moo Bae of West Friendship, Md. (10 bass, 19-4, $2,662); Phil Jarmon of Apex, N.C. (10 bass, 18-14, $1,996); George Yund of Albany, N.Y. (nine bass, 18-7, $1,663); and Kevin Hoogenboom of Twinsburg, Ohio (eight bass, 16-0, $1,497).
Reagan Henry of Texarkana, Texas, caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Friday – a 7-pound, 2 ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Folgers Big Bass award of $105.
After four qualifying events are complete in each Stren Series division – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western – the top 40 pros and 40 co-anglers based on the points standings from each division advance to the Stren Series Championship on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Ala., Nov. 5-7 for a shot at $150,000 in the Pro Division and $60,000 in the Co-angler Division. The top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers from each division will also qualify for the 2010 Walmart FLW Tour® and Walmart FLW Series®, bass fishing’s top professional circuits. The highest-finishing pro and co-angler from each division at the Stren Series Championship also qualify for the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup.
In Stren Series competition, pros supply the boats, fish from the front deck against other pros and control boat movement. Co-anglers fish from the back deck and compete against other co-anglers. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points that determine angler standings. Two hundred points are awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 points for third, and so on. The full field competes on days one and two, with the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers advancing to day three based on their two-day accumulated weight. Winners are determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from all three days.
Total awards are based on a 200-boat field in every tournament.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. FLW Outdoors also has taken fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing, offering the largest awards possible in the history of fantasy sports.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.