Strader secures BFL win on Watts Bar Lake

Sanchez on top of co-angler field

ROCKWOOD, Tenn. – Team Goodwill pro Wesley Strader of Spring City, Tenn., won the Walmart Bass Fishing League Volunteer Division two-day Super Tournament on Watts Bar Lake Sunday with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 35 pounds, 10 ounces. The victory earned Strader $5,137.

“I felt pretty confident going into the second day of the tournament because I knew I had found something that was working, but I really needed it to get bright and sunny again,” Strader said. “The last couple of tournaments I figured out something about the fish and why they do what they do.”

Strader said he had noticed that during cloudy conditions, when conventional wisdom says to fish a buzzbait, he couldn’t get solid hookups on the buzzbait. As soon as the sun came out, though, the fish hit more aggressively.

“It got cloudy the first day of the tournament, and they wouldn’t eat the buzzbait good,” Strader said. “I knew a cold front was coming through, and it got bright and sunny. And then when I caught them on the buzzbait, it caught them good. They had it deep in their mouths. You can fish that buzzbait all day long – you don’t get a lot of bites on it, but the bites you do get are big.”

Rounding out the top five boaters are Joe Lee of Knoxville, Tenn. (10 bass, 26-7, $2,569); Team Febreze pro Craig Powers of Rockwood, Tenn. (10 bass, 25-10, $1,712); Mark Mauldin of Knoxville, Tenn. (nine bass, 25-8, $1,199); and Jonathan Pelfrey of Rockwood, Tenn. (nine bass, 23-0, $1,027).

Strader took home the Boater Division Folgers Big Bass award, earning $645 for a 5-pound, 7-ounce bass he caught.

John Sanchez of Friendsville, Tenn., earned $2,569 as the co-angler winner Sunday thanks to a two-day catch of eight bass weighing 20 pounds, 14 ounces that he caught fishing a deep-diving crankbait and jigs 10 to 15 feet deep.

Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Garry Collins of Russell Springs, Ky. (five bass, 17-6, $1,284); Timmy Cales of Peterstown, W.Va. (six bass, 17-5, $858); Jason Meade of Knoxville, Tenn. (five bass, 14-7, $599); and Jerry Last of Chattanooga, Tenn. (five bass, 13-8, $514).

Dan Hayes of Lake City, Tenn., earned $322 as the co-angler Folgers Big Bass winner after catching a 4-pound, 14-ounce bass on a crankbait.

The top 40 boaters and 40 co-anglers in each of the BFL’s 28 divisions at the end of the season advance to a no-entry-fee Regional Championship where boaters fish for a new Ranger boat and a Chevy truck and co-anglers fish for a new Ranger boat. Seven regional championships will each send six boaters and six co-anglers to the no-entry-fee Walmart BFL All-American presented by Chevy, which features a $1 million purse and a top award of $140,000 in the Boater Division and $70,000 in the Co-angler Division. Anglers who compete in all five regular-season events within a division but do not advance to a Regional Championship are eligible to compete in the Chevy Wild Card, which will also send six boaters and six co-anglers to the All-American for a total of 48 boaters and 48 co-anglers advancing through BFL competition.

The winning boater and winning co-angler at the All-American will advance to the no-entry-fee Forrest Wood Cup in Atlanta in 2010. This event, featuring a top award of $1 million, is the most lucrative tournament in all of competitive bass fishing. In all, the BFL offers weekend anglers the opportunity to qualify for three no-entry-fee championships with total cash awards exceeding $3.5 million. Plus, the top 40 boaters and 40 co-anglers from each BFL division may move up to the Stren Series for 2010 while All-American champions have the option to advance directly to the Walmart FLW Tour.

In BFL competition, boaters supply the boat and compete from the front deck against other boaters. Co-anglers compete from the back deck against other co-anglers.

As the nation’s leading provider of affordable, close-to-home weekend tournaments, the BFL is widely credited with opening competitive bass fishing to the masses. It also serves as a steppingstone for anglers who wish to advance to the Stren Series and ultimately the FLW Tour – bass fishing’s most lucrative tournament circuit.

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. Sign up for Player’s Advantage to get your edge and win.

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.