Przekurat Gets First FLW Tour Win at Red Wing
Category: Tournament
May 5th, 2007 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified May 5th, 2007 at 12:00 AM
RED WING, Minn. – BP pro Jason Przekurat of Stevens Point, Wis., along with his partner, Phil Milliser of Plymouth, Ind., caught five walleyes weighing 27 pounds, 3 ounces to win the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour event presented by Evinrude on the Mississippi River in Red Wing, Minn. Przekurat had a four-day total of 18 walleyes weighing 89-15 to net him the win and $100,000.”What a day,” said Przekurat, who now has an FLW Walleye Tour win under his belt. “I got to my spot early this morning and there were a few local guys sitting on it. They were courteous enough to let me in and start fishing. I had a flawless day. I never lost a fish and had 20 pounds in the boat by 9 this morning. I even quit fishing today around 11:30 this morning and just waited. If someone was going to beat me with what I had, they deserved it more than me. It is a great feeling to get hooked up with such great company as BP and then go out and perform well. It is a big win for the both of us.””Going into this tournament I had a good feeling about it. I knew I had the right spot and the potential for me to win was there. I just had to do my part and catch fish consistently. I took the gamble and fished this one spot all week and luckily it paid off.””My honey hole was a spot right outside of a backwater lake. The fish were spawning in that lake and they would move out and stage up on this spot after they were finished. I had a steady stream of fish coming out. They seemed to be replenishing themselves everyday. I was tied up to a tree in an eddy and had two three way rigs out the back while my partner and I flipped and pitched jigs into some of the heavy cover around the boat. I would say that 90 percent of my fish came off the jigs but a few did come off the live bait rigs.”Rounding out the top five pros are Castrol pro Nick Johnson of Elmwood, Wis. (18 walleyes, 69 pounds, 2 ounces, $40,000); Chris Gilman of Chisago City, Minn. (20 walleyes, 68 pounds, 4 ounces, $25,000); Rock McGillivary of Watertown, S.D. (18 walleyes, 66 pounds, 12 ounces, $18,000); and Nate Provost of Green Bay, Wis. (20 walleyes, 66 pounds, 10 ounces, $13,000).Milliser wins the co-angler division and $10,000 with a four-day total catch of 20 walleyes weighing 87-5 beating the closest competitor by more than 25 pounds. “This week has been great,” said Milliser, who has now cashed checks from both the boater and co-angler side of competition in the Walleye Tour. “I had four super people to fish with and I couldn’t ask for a better week. The lord really shinned on me this week. My daughter graduated from college today, I got a big check and trophy. This day couldn’t get much better. Now that my daughter is out of school I will be purchasing a new Ranger boat this fall.”Pros and co-anglers fish for a combined boat weight. Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Justin Steinke of Birnamwood, Wis. (19 walleyes, 62-5, $5,000), Kenny Brenner of Moline, Ill. (19 walleyes, 61-7, $3,500), Joseph Fallaw of Wonder Lake, Ill. (18 walleyes, 59-15, $2,500 plus $1,500 contingency bonus) and Richard Ness of Ruthton, Minn. (20 walleyes, 58-10, $2,200 plus $800 contingency bonus).With a $2.71 million total purse, including the no-entry-fee $675,850 Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour Championship on Lake Erie at Cleveland, Ohio, Sept. 27-30, and television coverage on FSN (Fox Sports Net), the FLW Walleye Tour is bigger and better than ever.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 winner 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 angler standings. The top 50 pros and 50 co-anglers based on year-end points standings will advance to the 2007 FLW Walleye Tour Championship.The FLW Walleye Tour Championship is the most lucrative event in professional walleye angling, with guaranteed cash awards for the entire field. A guaranteed cash award of $100,000 plus potential sponsor bonuses totaling $50,000 will go to the FLW Walleye Tour Championship winner for a total pro award of $150,000. The champion co-angler will win a guaranteed cash award of $11,000 plus potential sponsor bonuses totaling $11,000 for a total co-angler award of $22,000.Coverage of the FLW Walleye Tour event on the Mississippi River will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States on June 24 as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. Eastern. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to more than 350 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoor-sports television show in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 servicemembers stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail presented by Abu Garcia, Ranger Owners Tournament Championship Series, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses of nearly $43 million through 241 events in 2007.Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Walmart.com.For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, browse FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.