FishNLand.com

Bad Luck Streak Ends With $100,000 Fantasy Fishing Miracle
They say bad luck comes in threes, but not for Eugene Sullivan.
MINNEAPOLIS -(FishNLand.com)- They say bad luck comes in threes, but not for Eugene Sullivan. The Syracuse, N.Y., resident broke his run of bad luck by winning the third tournament of an international online fantasy fishing game, FLW Fantasy Fishing, and claiming its $100,000 prize – by just a 15-point margin.

Out of work for nearly a year and facing mounting bills, the $100,000 win couldn’t have come at a better time for Sullivan. The 54-year-old data security administrator had been laid off by JPMorgan Chase a year ago amid mass layoffs within the financial services industry. His luck had taken a turn for the worse three weeks ago when Sullivan unexpectedly underwent heart bypass surgery, from which he is now recovering.

Last week, Sullivan went online to FantasyFishing.com and, using an online research tool called Player’s Advantage, picked a team of 10 bass pros scheduled to fish the National Guard Open. He earned 12,188 points based on the performance of his 10 bass pros who fished Lake Norman, near Charlotte, N.C., April 23-26. The National Guard Open is one of six regular-season tournaments on the Walmart FLW Tour, the largest and richest professional bass-fishing tournament series in the world.

Sullivan scored big when he picked Stetson Blaylock, a rookie on the FLW Tour, to finish first and Sean Hoernke to finish fifth. Those picks constituted two exactas that earned Sullivan huge bonus points. In addition, three of his other 10 bass pros finished in the top 10 of the National Guard Open. At just 21, Blaylock became the youngest bass pro in history to win an FLW Tour event, taking the National Guard Open’s $200,000 first-place prize. Blaylock, a Team Berkley pro from Benton, Ark., weighed in 10 fish in the final two days of the tournament to win with a total weight of 23 pounds, 15 ounces.

Sullivan’s $100,000 win was close – almost too close. Edging out Wadsworth, Ohio, resident Dan Broadbent by just 15 points, Sullivan won by the closest margin ever recorded in FLW Fantasy Fishing history.

“This is simply a miracle,” said Sullivan, who suspected that he had done well as he watched the National Guard Open final weigh-in on FLW Live, a live satellite broadcast available through FLWOutdoors.com. “I desperately need the money. This will give me a cushion as I continue my job search. Thank you FLW Fantasy Fishing and FLW Outdoors.”

Sullivan learned about FLW Fantasy Fishing back in January when he visited the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, N.Y., which is located about 30 miles east of Syracuse. Sullivan registered for FLW Fantasy Fishing as part of Turning Stone Resort & Casino’s “Cast and Cash” promotion. Sullivan entered the first FLW Fantasy Fishing tournament of the 2009 season at FantasyFishing.com, which took place in February.

Sullivan, who has never played any other fantasy sports games, says he owes his $100,000 win to Player’s Advantage, the online research tool offered by FLW Fantasy Fishing, which he purchased for just $10. Not familiar with any of the bass pros who fish the FLW Tour, the Player’s Advantage research tool helped Sullivan decide which bass pros to pick before each FLW Fantasy Fishing tournament.

A recreational angler who enjoys fishing for just about any type of fish, Sullivan is now in ninth place overall in FLW Fantasy Fishing’s six-tournament series and is within easy striking distance of the $1 million grand prize. But it won’t be without a fight; there are players in 123 countries competing to accumulate the most points over six tournaments and receive the $1 million grand prize on Aug. 1 in Pittsburgh. The current overall points leader, with 22,673 total points, is Terry Moberly of Berea, Ky., who won $100,000 for the first 2009 FLW Fantasy Fishing tournament.

$1 million grand prize to be awarded in Pittsburgh Aug. 1

FLW Fantasy Fishing, conducted by FLW Outdoors, brings the world’s richest bass-fishing tournament, the Forrest Wood Cup, to Pittsburgh this summer from July 30-Aug. 2. The Forrest Wood Cup is the final event in the Walmart FLW Tour. Just like fantasy football and fantasy baseball, you can follow the leading money winners on the FLW Tour all season long at FLWOutdoors.com as well as on the “FLW Outdoors” television program, which is broadcast in high definition on VERSUS, the network that brings anglers the best fishing programming on television and features the most trusted authorities on the water. The Emmy-nominated “FLW Outdoors” airs each Sunday from 12:30 to 1:30 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors,” hosted by Jason Harper, is broadcast to approximately 500 million households worldwide, including internationally through agreements with WFN (World Fishing Network) and Matchroom Sport to such countries as Canada, Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoor-sports television show in the world.

In addition to the $1 million grand prize and six $100,000 cash tournament prizes, FLW Fantasy Fishing players are eligible to win more than 1,800 prizes including a Ranger boat valued at $54,000, a brand new Chevy vehicle valued at $27,000, personal watercrafts and ATVs valued at $8,000 each, and much more. Fantasy Fishing also offers the $3 million exact bonus game for the player who correctly ranks the top five finishers in the Forrest Wood Cup and a $5 million exacta bonus game for the player who correctly ranks the top seven finishers in any of the six regular-season tournaments.

FLW Fantasy Fishing players can increase their chances of winning the $1 million grand prize by entering all FLW Fantasy Fishing tournaments throughout the season and accumulating a greater amount of points leading up to the Forrest Wood Cup. The next tournaments in the FLW Tour professional bass circuit include these:

Tournament 4: Beaver Lake, Rogers, Ark., May 14-17 (Walmart Open)
Tournament 5: Kentucky-Barkley lakes, Benton, Ky., June 11-14
Tournament 6: Lake Champlain, Plattsburgh, N.Y., July 9-12
$1 Million Grand Prize Announcement: Forrest Wood Cup, Pittsburgh, Aug. 1

The richest fantasy sports game

In its first season, FLW Fantasy Fishing took the fantasy sports world by surprise, offering the first $1 million guaranteed grand prize for a fantasy sports game. And with that announcement, FLW Fantasy Fishing soared to the top of the fantasy sports world, gaining fans from 123 countries who were attracted to the game’s $7.3 million in overall cash and prizes, the highest payout of any fantasy sports game in the world.

In 2009 FLW Fantasy Fishing once again set a new standard, offering a $1 million grand prize again along with 1,800 other prizes for a total of $10 million in overall cash and prizes.

About FLW Outdoors

FLW Outdoors – named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats – is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world and is offering anglers the chance to win more than $33 million through 231 tournaments in 2009. FLW Outdoors also is taking fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing, offering the largest awards possible in the history of fantasy sports, $10 million in cash and prizes. Sign up for Player’s Advantage for only $10 to get your edge and win. 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.

Filed under: Fishing Events, Industry News by FishNLand No Comments »

Maryland’s Bay Grasses Increase in 2008
Susquehanna Flats continued expansion drives 20% Increase

Annapolis, MD - (FishNLand.com)- Bay grasses, a favorite home to the blue crab, increased 20 percent in 2008 in Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The majority of the 7,221-acre increase resulted from a continued expansion on the Susquehanna Flats, home of the largest bay grass beds in the Chesapeake Bay. While the new number — 42,237 acres (up from 35,016 acres in 2007) — marks a significant increase, Maryland bay grass acreage remains far short of the 2010 restoration goal of 110,000 acres.

“Whether they fish, boat, swim in its waters, or simply enjoy its world-class seafood, the waters of the Chesapeake Bay are a vital resource for Maryland families… and bay grasses are vital to a healthy Bay,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “While this increase is encouraging, we must continue to take aggressive action, collectively and individually, to reduce nutrient and sediment pollution from the major Bay sources. By properly maintaining septic systems, practicing sensible lawn care or planting trees, every Marylander can make a difference.”

Bay grasses, or submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) are critical to the Chesapeake by providing food and shelter for a wide range of fish, shellfish and waterfowl including largemouth bass, blue crabs and the canvasback duck. Healthy bay grass beds also protect shorelines from erosion, produce oxygen, remove excess nutrients from the water and trap sediment that would otherwise cloud the water.

“Because bay grasses are sensitive to even minor changes in water quality, they serve as a key indicator of the health of our waterways,” said Natural Resources Secretary John Griffin. “So, while these increases are good news for some portions of the Bay, there are still places where poor water quality continues to restrict recovery.”

Maryland’s increase in bay grass acreage has been driven by the Susquehanna Flats beds, which now cover about 15,000 acres or about 23 square miles. The Flats, located at the top of the Chesapeake Bay, is actually a delta formed below the mouth of the Susquehanna River near Havre de Grace. These thriving beds are home to over 12 different types of bay grasses.

Increasing in size since 1991, these vast beds have also become more dense. Today they act like a giant water filter, often producing visibility up to eight feet, a level unrivaled in other areas of the Bay. These substantial increases have co-occurred with long-term reductions in nitrogen loads reaching the Bay at the Susquehanna River as confirmed by State monitoring.

In addition to the remarkable growth on the Susquehanna Flats, bay grasses in the Elk River increased nearly 20 percent to 2,347 acres meeting its acreage goal for the first time in 2008. Expansion of bay grass beds in the Northeast River continued a 3-year trend, increasing an additional 60 percent to 182 acres in 2008, far exceeding the 89-acre goal for the river.

Numerous other areas have also met bay grass restoration goals for several years now, including the Bohemia, Bush and upper Potomac Rivers, and Mattawoman Creek, though grass in the Bohemia and Bush have been declining in recent years. Also encouraging, bay grasses in the middle Patuxent and Middle Rivers, Piscataway Creek, and the upper Chesapeake Bay directly below the Susquehanna Flats are all approaching their restoration goals.

Grasses in the Potomac River — from near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge south to about Mattawoman Creek — have shown steady increases since 2000, and have exceeded the restoration goal by 47 percent. This is due in part to major upgrades in wastewater treatment at the Blue Plains Facility in Washington, DC. Long-term water quality monitoring has confirmed reduced levels of nitrogen in the Potomac River since the partial wastewater treatment plant upgrade in 1996 and the full upgrade was completed in 2000.

Increases in bay grass coverage on Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore were driven primarily by the recovery of eelgrass, a higher salinity-tolerant type of bay grass, after significant reductions in eelgrass populations resulting from a bay-wide dieback in 2005. Several regions, including Tangier and Pocomoke Sounds and the Manokin and Big Annemessex Rivers, have seen increases in eelgrass since 2006. In the Honga River, bay grass acreage nearly doubled in 2008 due to a resurgence of widgeon grass, another type of bay grass tolerant of saltier waters.

Despite this encouraging progress, other Bay areas are showing steady declines in bay grass acreage. Poor water quality continues to hamper bay grass recovery in the middle zone (Kent Island south to the Potomac and Pocomoke Rivers). Several regions, including the Choptank, Little Choptank and lower Potomac Rivers, continue to experience substantial declines in bay grass acreages.

Bay grasses acreage is estimated through an aerial survey, which is flown from late spring to early fall. Additional information about the aerial survey and survey results, is available at www.vims.edu/bio/sav/.

Introduced by Governor Martin O’Malley in February 2007, BayStat is a powerful new statewide tool designed to assess, coordinate and target Maryland’s Bay restoration programs, and to allow citizens to track its progress. To learn more about the health of Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, the sources of the problems, and the effectiveness of the wide variety of programs designed to address these problems and restore the Bay, visit www.baystat.maryland.gov.

Filed under: Conservation News, Fish and Game by FishNLand No Comments »

Effective Use Of Jigs Should Be In Anglers’ Arsenals

Typical Jigs

LITTLE ROCK –(FishNLand.com)- Jigs are tried and true utensils for catching fish of many species in Arkansas, from trout requiring tiny jigs to lead-heavy ones used for striped bass.

In crappie fishing, many of Arkansas’s better crappie anglers use only jigs. They wouldn’t touch a live minnow with the proverbial 10-foot pole. These folks catch a heck of a lot of crappie, often when others strike out. Still, don’t interpret these comments as meaning jigs are superior to minnows for crappie fishing. But jigs are effective for many crappie chasers.

One form of jigs, whether using plastic skirts or trailers or using hair or feathers, is the micro jig. These are the little ones. Very little.

Micro jigs in most fishermen’s understanding means those weighing 1/16th of an ounce or less. That includes 1/32nd-ounce, 1/64th-ounce, and apparently 1/128th-ounce jigs have been created.

The very small jigs, the micro type. tend to be associated with trout fishing, but they will work at times on crappie, bream and other species, even largemouth bass.

Professional bass fishermen, at least many of them, usually have a handful of small jigs in one of their tackle boxes. These tend to be 1/8th-ounce in weight, but sometimes the pros will work with 1/16th-ounce. Trouble with them is they are difficult to cast with standard bass fishing reels.

For those fishermen not in the professional bass ranks, micro jigs can be fished with ultralight spinning rigs, including 2-pound or 4-pound line. They also do well with fly rods.

There isn’t a discernible time when these tiny jigs should be brought into action unless it falls into the “match the hatch” technique fly fishermen use with trout.

The same game plan can work with bream. Find them dimpling the surface, feeding on small insects, and a micro jig might be just the ticket to get bream hitting for you.

It won’t work all the time, but it’s a technique worth keeping in mind and gearing up for.

Filed under: Expert Articles, Fishing Gear News by FishNLand 1 Comment »