Walmart FLW Tour season finale set for Lake Guntersville
Warm temperatures mean tough fishing experience for competitors
GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. – The Walmart FLW Tour on Lake Guntersville presented by Mercury will visit Guntersville, Ala., Oct. 20-23 for the final tournament of the season. Hosted by the Marshall County Convention & Visitors Bureau, the tournament features the country’s top bass anglers casting for top awards up to $125,000 cash in the Pro Division and up to $25,000 cash in the Co-angler Division.
National Guard pro Justin Lucas of Guntersville said the abundance of both bait and grasses such as hydrilla and milfoil as well as warm temperatures has Lake Guntersville fishing tougher than usual.
“There’s a ton of grass there this fall and (plastic) frogs and flipping will be the majority of the techniques used there,” Lucas said. “Everybody will be fishing grass. You can’t hardly get away from it unless you fish offshore, and typically offshore this time of year is not the deal.
“A lot of local guys are saying this is the toughest they’ve ever seen this lake,” Lucas added. “It was tough last fall, but not anywhere near this tough.”
Lucas predicts under current fishing conditions it will take anglers 13 to 14 pounds a day to make the top-10 cut and 15 to 16 pounds a day to win the event.
“It needs to get colder,” Lucas said. “The water temperature needs to get down into the low 60s for it to start getting real good.”
Lucas said air temperatures would need to plummet into the low 40s at night and remain in the mid-50s during the day in order for water temperatures to drop to an ideal range for fishing.
“Right now we’ve got lows of mid-50s and highs of right at 80 degrees,” Lucas said. “So the water temperatures are in the 70s.
“Obviously the days are getting shorter, so naturally it is getting cooler, but it’s just not cooling down fast enough,” Lucas added.
Anglers will take off from Lake Guntersville State Park located at 7966 Alabama Highway 227 in Guntersville at 7 each morning. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will also be held at Lake Guntersville State Park beginning at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday’s final weigh-ins will be held at Walmart located at 11697 Highway 431 S. in Guntersville beginning at 4 p.m.
Fans will be treated to the FLW Outdoors Expo at Walmart on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. prior to the final weigh-ins. The Expo includes Ranger boat simulators, the opportunity to interact with professional anglers, enjoy interactive games, activities and giveaways provided by sponsors, and fans can learn more about the sport of fishing and other outdoor activities. All activities are free and open to the public.
Coverage of the Lake Guntersville tournament will be broadcast in high-definition (HD) on VERSUS. “FLW Outdoors” will air Dec. 4 from 1 to 2 p.m. ET. “FLW Outdoors,” hosted by Jason Harper, is broadcast to more than 500 million households worldwide.
For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow FLW Outdoors on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWOutdoors.
About FLW Outdoors
FLW Outdoors is the largest tournament-fishing organization in the world, offering anglers worldwide the opportunity to compete for millions over the course of 191 tournaments in 2011. FLW Outdoors has taken fishing mainstream with the world’s richest fantasy sports game, FLW Fantasy Fishing at FantasyFishing.com, where competitors can play for free as well as sign up for Player’s Advantage to gain an edge.