More than 340 pros and co-anglers are set to close the Costa FLW Series Northern Division regular season next week, Sept. 6-8, at the Costa FLW Series at 1000 Islands presented by Navionics. The tournament, hosted by the Clayton Chamber of Commerce, is the third and final regular-season event scheduled in the FLW Series Northern Division. The event will feature anglers competing for a top award of up to $90,000, including a brand new Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard.

“This is one of my favorite tournaments of the year,” said the 2018 FLW Tour Rookie of the Year Matt Becker of Finleyville, Pennsylvania, who won this event in 2017. “It’s an extremely beautiful and scenic fishery. The weather is great – the wind can get blowing, but temperature-wise there are not too many places in the country that you can go right now and not be sweating. And the fishing is so great. We’re going to see a lot of big smallmouth in this one.”

Becker said that he expects a drop-shot rig will likely dominate the top of the leaderboard, but also mentioned swimbaits, tubes and spybaits as baits that could play a role.

“A drop-shot is going to dominate like it always does – I throw a 3-inch Keitech Shad Impact soft jerkbait – but you can always catch them on a Keitech swimbait or a tube as well,” Becker said. “You can never rule out a spybait, though. It won here a couple of years ago.”

In the 2017 tournament, nine of the final 10 pros spent the majority of their time fishing offshore in Lake Ontario. Although he said that he expects the tournament to most likely be won there, Becker said that many more anglers would be spending their fishing time in the St. Lawrence River.

“The river is fishing a lot better right now than it was last year,” Becker said. “I think we’ll see a much bigger split this year – half of the competitors in the river, half in the lake. Especially if the wind is blowing.

“Barring any crazy weather, I think we’ll see bigger weights than last year,” Becker went on to say. “I think it’ll take a three-day total between 72 to 75 pounds to win this one.”

Anglers will take off and weigh-in at the Clayton Harbor Municipal Marina, located at 301 Web St., in Clayton. Takeoff will be held at 6:30 a.m. EDT each day of competition and weigh-ins will start at 2:30 p.m. All takeoffs and weigh-ins are free to attend and open to the public.

In Costa FLW Series regular-season competition, payouts are based on the number of participants competing in the event. At the 1000 Islands event, pros will fish for a top prize of $90,000, including a brand new Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard if Ranger Cup qualified. Co-anglers will cast for a brand new Ranger Z175 boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard, and $5,000 if Ranger Cup qualified.

The Costa FLW Series consists of five U.S. divisions – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western – along with the International division. Each U.S. division consists of three regular-season tournaments with competitors vying for valuable points that could earn them the opportunity to compete in the season-ending Costa FLW Series Championship. The 2018 Costa FLW Series Championship is being held Nov. 1-3 on Lake Guntersville in Guntersville, Alabama, and is hosted by the Marshall County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com.