$2.49 Million Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour To Visit Bays De Noc
Category: press release
Jul 2nd, 2008 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Jul 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 AM
ESCANABA, Mich. (July 2, 2008) – The lucrative $2.49 million 2008 Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour will hold its final qualifying event on Bays de Noc in Escanaba, Mich., July 23-26. The $461,500 tournament presented by Evinrude and hosted by the Bays de Noc Convention & Visitors Bureau will feature 300 anglers from 23 states and national television coverage on FSN (Fox Sports Net).
Pros will compete for a top award of $100,000 and co-anglers will compete for as much as $20,000.
“This should be a great tournament,” said pro Dean Alrnoldussen of Appleton, Wis., who is currently the all-time leading money winner on the Walleye Tour, earning more than $584,000 in his career. “I have grown up fishing Bays de Noc and I am looking forward to it. I consider it as being my home body of water because it is connected to Green Bay and I fish there all the time. It is the same type of fishing.
“The tournament is a little later in the year than in 2007 when the tour was last in Escanaba, so I think that we will have a better bite. As it gets later in the year, the bigger fish move into the inner bays and most of the bait fish will have moved out.”
Arnoldussen said that the weather will be a huge factor on this body of water. The Bays de Noc tournament consists of fishing two bays – Little Bay de Noc and Big Bay de Noc. Most of the anglers will stay in the little bay if it is windy rather than making the trip over to the big bay. Typically, the little bay has a better bite. A lot of anglers will start out fishing the big bay to get their two walleye over 23 inches, then come back to the little bay to catch the rest of their limit. In any case, Arnoldussen said the majority of the field should be trolling spinners to try to coax a bite.
A slot limit for walleyes will allow each angler to keep one walleye over 23 inches. Anglers may keep any number of walleyes over 15 inches up to the five-fish limit, but only two may be over 23 inches. Anglers are restricted to fishing only Michigan waters during the Bays de Noc tournament.
“Last time we were at Bays de Noc, anglers were traveling so far that they damaged their equipment,” Arnoldussen said. “I think that keeping anglers in Michigan waters will only benefit them in the end.”
Arnoldussen said anglers may need 17 pounds a day to make the cut in the tournament, and the winner will need a four-day total of close to 75 pounds to take home the winning paycheck.
Escanaba Harbor in Escanaba will host daily takeoffs each morning at 7 a.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will also be held at the Escanaba Harbor beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s takeoff will take place at 6:30 a.m. with the final weigh-in being held at the Wal-Mart store located at 601 North Lincoln Rd. beginning at 4:30 p.m. The community is invited to attend daily takeoffs and weigh-ins, which are free and open to the public.
Pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day and fish for a combined boat weight. Pros compete against other pros, and co-anglers compete against other co-anglers. The full field competes during the three-day opening round for one of 10 final-round slots based on their three-day accumulated weight. Weights carry over to day four, with the winners determined by the heaviest four-day weight.
Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points, with 150 points awarded to the winner, 149 to second, 148 for third, and so on. These points determine Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year standings. The top 50 pros and 50 co-anglers in the standings will advance to the $650,000 FLW Walleye Tour Championship in Bismarck, N.D., Sept. 24-27 for a shot at top awards of $150,000 and $20,000, respectively. The prestigious championship, hosted by the Bismarck-Mandan Convention and Visitors Bureau, will also feature boater and co-angler points champions from each of four Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League divisions. The no-entry-fee FLW Walleye Tour Championship is the most lucrative event in professional walleye angling, with cash awards for the entire field.
Tournament pros aren’t the only ones winning big this season. With the introduction of FLW Fantasy Fishing™, FLW Outdoors® offers anyone the opportunity to enter for their chance to land the catch of a lifetime with the opportunity to win $7.3 million in cash and prizes. Players can become a virtual pro angler by signing up for Player’s Advantage, providing them with exclusive insider information that could guide them to a $100,000 victory at every Wal-Mart FLW Tour® stop and the Forrest Wood Cup. Player’s Advantage will give them an edge over the competition and increase their shot for a $1 million cash grand prize that will be awarded to the FLW Fantasy Fishing cumulative points winner. Those who visit FantasyFishing.com today can sign up for Player’s Advantage and FLW Outdoors will include a $15 Wal-Mart gift card.
Coverage of the FLW Walleye Tour stop on Bays de Noc will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States on Oct. 12 as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast in Canada on WFN (World Fishing Network) and to more than 429 million households in the United Kingdom, Europe, Russia, Australia, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East through a distribution agreement with Matchroom Sport, making it the most widely distributed fishing program in the world. The program airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time in most markets. Check local listings for times in your area.
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.
Awards are based on a full field of 150 boats in every tournament.