Stren Series North Goes to Champlain
Category: Tournament
Jun 27th, 2008 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Jun 27th, 2008 at 12:00 AM
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (June 25, 2008) – The $6.5 million Stren Series™is headed to Lake Champlain July 16-19 for a $275,225 bass tournament. As many as 400 pros and co-anglers from 26 states will be competing in the first Northern Division tournament of the season for top awards of $65,000 and $35,000, respectively.
"When I won in September, it was a different time of year; we seem to be going to Champlain a lot of different times, which is neat because you get to see a lot of the different movements of the largemouth and smallmouth," said Pete Gluszek of Franklinville, N.J., who won the Stren Series Northern Division tournament on Lake Champlain in 2006 and Stren Series Northern Division tournament on the Hudson River in 2007. "In July, the spawn is going to be wrapping up on the north end, so the smallmouth will just about all be off the beds; we're going to have kind of a post spawn pattern developing. Down in the southern end of the lake in the Ticonderoga area, the spawn will have been over for a month or more, and the fish are going to be more advanced into their summertime patterns."
Gluszek expects anglers to bring in as much as 16-17 pounds a day to win, and predicts they will be using a variety of techniques to catch their bass, depending on their individual strengths. He plans to target smallmouth, while also fishing for largemouth on the north end of the lake. Gluszek describes the south end of Lake Champlain as a "flipper's paradise," where anglers who prefer to fish for largemouth in the grass will probably go.
"It's becoming more popular to run south on the lake, but it's a big gamble, since you have a long boat ride and rough water; there's been a few tournament wins down there, so some guys will go down to Ticonderoga for largemouth that are in their summertime mode and very aggressive," Gluszek said. "Up north, your smallmouth are going to be just coming off the beds and spread out, and the largemouth are going to be kind of doing the same thing. In my mind, it's going to be about covering a lot of water and staying with the schools of fish, because they're so spread out. By staying north, you're a little more conservative, because you can fish wherever you want to fish-the weather isn't as big of a factor."
"As always on Lake Champlain, it will be one of the most exciting places to fish–you can win with largemouth; you can win with smallmouth; you can win on the north end or the south end," Gluszek added.
Anglers will take off from Dock Street Landing located at 5 Dock St. in Plattsburgh, N.Y., at 6:30 each morning. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday's weigh-ins also will be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday's weigh-in will be held at Crete Memorial Civic Center located at Route 9 N. Beach Road in Plattsburgh, N.Y., beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The Lake Champlain Stren Series tournament is hosted by Plattsburgh, N.Y.
Pros will fish for a top award of $25,000 plus a $40,000 198VX Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor and Lowrance electronics if contingency guidelines are met. Ranger will award another $3,000 to the winner if he or she is a participant in the Ranger Cup program. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $1,500 to the highest-finishing participant in the contingency program. Yamaha or Evinrude will match 50 percent of Ranger Cup earnings if "Powered by Yamaha" or "Powered by E-Tec" guidelines are met.
Co-anglers will cast for a top award of $5,000 plus a $30,000 Ranger boat and trailer if contingency guidelines are met.
Competitors will also be vying for valuable points that could earn them a trip to the $1 million Stren Series Championship on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Mo., Nov. 5-8 for a shot at $140,000 in the Pro Division and $70,000 in the Co-angler Division. 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 Angler of the Year points standings from each division will advance to the championship. The top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers from each division will also qualify for the 2009 Wal-Mart FLW Tour® and Wal-Mart FLW Series®, bass fishing's top professional circuits, where they can compete for a share of $19.5 million. The highest-finishing pro and co-angler from each division at the Stren Series Championship will also qualify for the $2 million 2009 Forrest Wood Cup, where pros will fish for as much as $1 million – the most lucrative award in bass fishing.
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, two and three, with the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers advancing to day four based on their three-day accumulated weight. Winners are determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from all four days.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2008 alone the organization is offering more than 90,000 anglers the chance to win over $40 million through 230 tournaments in 10 circuits targeting bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass. FLW Outdoors is also taking fishing mainstream with the largest cash awards in the history of fantasy sports, $7.3 million.
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.
Total awards are based on a full field of 200 boats in every tournament.