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Rush Wins Stren Series Event On Lake Oroville
Peak Wins Co-Angler Title
OROVILLE, Calif. -(FishNLand.com)- Pro David Rush of Palermo, Calif., caught a five-bass limit weighing 9 pounds, 10 ounces Saturday to win the Stren Series Western tournament on Lake Oroville with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 29-8. For his victory, Rush earned $16,716 cash and a 198VX Ranger boat and trailer with an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard.

“I tried to stay away from everybody and fish a little different,” said Rush. “I honestly thought Jason [Bubier] or [Michael] Tuck would win it.”

“I caught more fish today than I did the first two days of the tournament,” said Rush, who was throwing four- and six-inch Roboworms on fluorocarbon line and also 3/16-ounce Texas-rigged green pumpkin YUM Mega Tube. “I was fishing two to 30 foot deep focusing on post spawn at the major points heading out to the main lake. I was concentrating on points instead of fishing areas.”

Rush opened the tournament in sixth place Thursday with five bass weighing 9-12. He then caught five bass weighing 10-2 Friday to make the crucial top 10 cut in fourth place.

Rounding out the top five pros are Ishama Monroe of Hughson, Calif. (15 bass, 29-4, $6,687); Jason Bubier of Oroville, Calif. (15 bass, 29-2, $5,349); Michael Tuck of Anelope, Calif. (15 bass, 29-1, $4,681); and Jeff Michaels of Lakehead, Calif. (15 bass, 28-6, $4,012)

Duane Dunstone of Reno, Nev., caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Pro Division Friday – a 5-pound, 11-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Folgers Big Bass award of $245.

Charles Peak of San Jose, Calif., won the Co-angler Division taking home a 177TX Ranger boat and trailer with an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard, with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 27-3. Peak fished with pros Glen Lockhart and James Miller on Thursday and Friday respectively, and sealed his victory fishing with Tuck on Saturday.

Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Ken Whalen of Lompoc, Calif., (14 bass, 26-5, $2,905); J.R. Wright of Truckee, Calif. (15 bass, 25-11, $2,179); Kyle Baker of Lancaster, Calif. (15 bass, 25-7, $1,816); and Gary Morris, Tracy, Calif. (15 bass, 24-12, $1,634).

Whalen earned an additional $2,500 for being the highest finishing Ranger Cup qualifier earning him a total of $5,405.

Tom Salo of Yuba City, Calif., caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Friday – a 3-pound, 5-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s big bass award of $122.

The next Stren Series Western event, hosted by the City of Oakley, will be held May 28-30 on the California Delta in Oakley, Calif. Boats will launch from Russo’s Marina in Bethel Island, Calif. and the final weigh-in will be held at the Walmart located at 4893 Lone Tree Way in Antioch, Calif.

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 the points standings from each division will advance to the Stren Series Championship on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Ala., Nov. 5-7 for a shot at $150,000 in the Pro Division and $60,000 in the Co-angler Division. The top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers from each division will also qualify for the 2010 Walmart FLW Tour® and Walmart FLW Series®, bass fishing’s top professional circuits. The highest-finishing pro and co-angler from each division at the Stren Series Championship will also qualify for the $2.5 million 2010 Forrest Wood Cup, where anglers will compete for the $1 million grand prize – 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.

Total awards are based on a full field of 200 boats in every tournament.

About

FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. 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.

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Scheide Wins Walmart FLW Tour Walmart Open On Beaver Lake
Scheide Earns First FLW Outdoors Victory In Five Years
Rogers, Ark. -(FishNLand.com)- Team BP pro Ray Scheide of Dover, Ark., caught a final-round total of 10 bass weighing 21 pounds, 1 ounce to win $200,000 in the $1.1 million Walmart FLW Tour Walmart Open presented by Kellogg’s on Beaver Lake. Scheide topped his closest rival, Mark Rose of Marion, Ark., by one pound, four ounces to earn the win and 200 points toward qualifying for the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup presented by Castrol and BP, which will be held July 30-Aug. 2 on the Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, Pa., where they could win as much as $1 million – the sport’s biggest award.

“It really feels good today to have a little redemption,” said Scheide, who won his first event with FLW Outdoors in more than five years. “Yesterday I missed some opportunities, but actually today I only had five bites. I caught the big one about 11 o’clock, but didn’t get my limit until after one.

“I had some options to go out and catch spots. But there was only one way to come back and try to make a run at this thing and that was to fish for largemouths.

Scheide said the fish were relocating each day. “One day they would be in real shallow water, the next they would be under trees. Today I actually got my first two bites in about eight to 10 foot of water. I just started running through new water and caught a majority of my fish on banks I had not even fished.”

“It was slow out there today,” said Scheide, who fished from Prairie Creek down to Coppermine. “I got my first bite around nine and another about 10. I was throwing a chigger craw and a big profile bait, alternating between them. That just shows my confidence in flipping baits right there.”

Scheide opened the tournament Thursday in 13th place with five bass weighing 11-7. He moved to seventh place Friday on the strength of a five-bass catch weighing 10 pounds, 9 ounces to advance into the final round of 10 pros with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 22 pounds even. On Saturday, weights were cleared, and Scheide caught five bass weighing 8-13 to advance to the final day of competition in fourth place. Scheide added another five bass weighing 12-4 to his final-round total Sunday.

Rose caught a final-round total of 10 bass weighing 19-13 to claim second place and $55,000.

“I started off catching the same fish today as I had been, they were just smaller,” said Rose, who would catch his limit early and then move on to new water searching for bigger fish. “I stayed there too long. I caught about 15 keepers, but I was still trying to get to seven or eight pounds.

“I was running out of time to go flip and when it got down to it, I only had about an hour and forty-five minutes to go fishing and I culled three times. Had I done that three hours earlier, who knows?”

Rose was using a topwater bait early in the week, but on the final day said he had to slow down using a shaky head. “I weighed in every fish today on that except one right at the end. I flipped in a trash pocket where I had to put it in four-wheel drive and go get it.

Rose, who said it was hard to feel bittersweet about finishing second, said “I wish I could finish second in every one of these. I have been at this 11 years and it would feel great to win one. I have finished everywhere from second to 200th and every place in between in those 11 years and I haven’t won one. How can you be upset with second place?”

Rounding out the top 10 pros were Team Kellogg’s pro Clark Wendlandt of Leander, Texas (nine bass, 19-12, $45,000); Jason Christie of Park Hill, Okla. (eight bass, 18-11, $35,000); Keith Combs of Del Rio, Texas (10 bass, 16-14, $30,000); Team Chevy pro Jay Yelas of Corvallis, Ore. (eight bass, 16-4, $28,000); Team Pringles pro Gabe Bolivar of Ramona, Calif. (eight bass, 16-1, $26,000); Team Berkley pro Glenn Browne of Ocala, Fla. (nine bass, 13-10, $24,000); Rob Kilby of Hot Springs, Ark. (10 bass, 13-6, $22,000); and Team National Guard pro and current Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year Brent Ehrler of Redlands, Calif. (eight bass, 12-3, $20,000).

Overall there were 43 bass weighing 84 pounds, 14 ounces caught in the Pro Division Sunday. The catch included six five-bass limits.

Brent Bridgeman of Elkmont, Ala., won the Co-angler Division and $40,000 Saturday with a five-bass limit weighing 7 pounds, 5 ounces followed by Zac Cassill of Fairfax, Iowa, in second place with five bass weighing 7-3 worth $15,000.

Bridgeman opened the tournament in second place Thursday with five bass weighing 9-14 while fishing with Bobby McMullin of Pevely, Mo. On Friday he slipped to third place with a five-bass catch weighing 6-0 while fishing with Team Febreze pro Craig Powers of Rockwood, Tenn. He wrapped up his win while fishing with Team Berkley pro Glenn Browne of Ocala, Fla.

“I didn’t even practice for this event,” said Bridgeman, who is fishing his rookie season of the FLW Tour. “I showed up barely in time for the meeting.

“My first cast on Beaver lake I caught my first keeper fish,” Bridgeman added. “First cast, first fish, first time on the lake. That’s a lot of coincidences.”

A custom airbrush artist for 21 years, Bridgeman decided to relocate from the west coast to fish the FLW Tour in 2009. Bridgeman grew up fishing tournaments with his father and won his first at age seven.

Bridgeman got the idea to fish the FLW Tour after researching Fantasy Fishing online. He had competed in a tournament at one point against angler Gary Yamamoto and had success and decided he could fish at the sport’s top level. Once he was verified to fish the Tour, Bridgeman packed his bags and moved to Alabama. That turned out to be a profitable move for Bridgeman.

“I figured I was in the top six or five,” Bridgeman said. “I thought it would take nine or 10 pounds to win it. I knew I had seven to eight pounds, and I’m glad it held up. I used a balance beam, and I bet that balance beam saved me.”

Bridgeman said he caught all of his fish on a green pumpkin with green and purple flake 6-inch Gary Yamamoto Swimming Senko rigged on a shaky head jig head.

“The fish would catch it on the fall,” Bridgeman said. “If they didn’t catch it on the fall, I’d just reel it in.”

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers are Todd Lee of Jasper, Ala. (three bass, 6-3, $7,500); T.R. Fuller of Auburn, Ala. (four bass, 4-13, $5,000); Moo Bae of West Friendship, Md. (two bass, 2-10, $4,000); Eddie Laster of Morton, Miss. (one bass, 2-2, $3,500); Dirk Davenport of Delaware, Ohio (one bass, 2-1, $3,000); Shane Lehew of Charlotte, N.C. (two bass, 2-0, $2,500); Kevin Hawk of Ramona, Calif. (one bass, 1-15, $2,000) and David Hudson of Jasper, Ala. (one bass, 1-4, $1,750).

The total purse for the Walmart Open event on Beaver Lake was more than $1.1 million, including $10,000 through 50th place in the Pro Division.

Coverage of the Beaver Lake tournament, hosted by the Rogers Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Bentonville Convention & Visitors Bureau, will be broadcast in high-definition (HD) on VERSUS, the network which brings anglers the best fishing programming on television featuring the most-trusted authorities on the water. The Emmy-nominated “FLW Outdoors,” will air June 14 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET. “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, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoor-sports television show in the world.

The FLW Tour will award more than $8 million cash to the world’s top bass anglers in 2009. Regular season competition includes three qualifiers and three opens. Each event takes anglers a step closer to the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup presented by Castrol, which will be held July 30-Aug. 2 on the Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, Pa. The prestigious championship and outdoor show hosted by Visit Pittsburgh will feature 77 pros, 77 co-anglers and bass fishing’s largest cash award – a potential $1 million first-place prize for the winning pro.

About

FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. 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.

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Oregon’s Byron Chaves Wins BASS Federation Nation Western Divisional on Columbia River

Tri Cities, Wash -(FishNLand.com)- Byron Chaves rode a borrowed jet boat to victory Friday, claiming the individual title in the 11-state BASS Federation Nation Western Divisional presented by Yamaha Outboards and Skeeter Boats on the Columbia River. The 33-year-old angler from Salem, Ore., amassed 32 pounds, 15 ounces.

Chaves boated 16-13 on Friday, during the weather-shortened tournament. Hogue, who was in fifth place after Day One, finished second with 31-13.

Using a jet boat loaned to him by friend Larry Cross, the champion caught all of his bass in the shallow water of the Yakima River, a tributary of the Columbia River.

“I thought that if I could pull out another kicker fish, the way that I did on Wednesday, that I’d have a chance,” Chaves said. “And, as it turned out, I did.”

Chaves, a full-time telecommunications professional, brought that kicker, a 5-6 smallmouth bass, to the boat at 8:45 a.m. He had a limit for the day at 9 a.m. The Oregon angler caught most of his bass on a Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver in goby color.

“I caught my fish in 1 to 4 feet of water, by casting into the (current) seam and then pulling the bait against the back eddy,” he said. “Except for that big fish today, all of my bass were pre-spawn.”

Rounding out the top five were John Mace of Kennewick, Wash., in third with 28-13, Jim Garrett of Moscow, Idaho, fourth with 28-12 and Chris Lambert of Olympia, Wash., fifth with 28-11.

As the tournament’s top angler, Chaves advances to the BASS Federation Nation Championship presented by Yamaha Outboards and Skeeter Boats, the ultimate amateur bass fishing championship to be held Oct. 28-30 on the Harris Chain of Lakes out of Tavares, Fla.

First-place anglers for the other 10 states also advanced to the championship, with an opportunity to earn a berth in the 2010 Bassmaster Classic on Lay Lake and Birmingham, Ala., scheduled for Feb. 19-21. They include Jeff Guerette of Glendale, Ariz.; Nick Wood of Yreka, Calif.; Owen Lounsbury of St. Maries, Idaho; Ben Grande of Las Vegas, Nev.; Paul Reutlinger of Salt Lake City, Utah; Leroy Starling of Missoula, Mont.; Hogue of Pasco, Wash.; Sam Russell of Salt Lake City, Utah; Massey of Lakewood, Colo.; and Rizuto of Navajo Dam, N.M.

With a cumulative weight of 304 pounds, 4 ounces, Washington won the team title, as well as well as a $30,000 Skeeter bass boat rigged with a Yamaha outboard motor. Anchored by Chaves, Oregon took second with 220-7 and Colorado finished third with 201-7.

On this final day of the tournament, young anglers also took to the water, as they fished for the right to advance to the Junior Bassmasters World Championship. Their weights were added to the cumulative weights of their respective states. Jake Cook of Kennewick, Wash., boated 14-4 to win in the 15-18 age group, while Nick Jakobi of Denver, Colo., won the 11-14 age group with 5-8. Both qualified for the Junior Bassmasters World Championship to be held in conjunction with the Federation Nation Championship in October. The tournament results for the Junior Bassmasters Western Divisional will be posted at Bassmaster.com.

The Western Divisional is the second of six regional qualifiers for the Federation Nation Championship. Next on the schedule is the Central Divisional set for June 22-26 on Greers Ferry Lake out of Greers Ferry, Ark.

Presenting Sponsors of the BASS Federation Nation: Yamaha Outboards and Skeeter Boats.

Official sponsors of the BASS Federation Nation: Toyota Trucks, Berkley, BOOYAH Baits, Evan Williams Bourbon, Mercury, OPTIMA Batteries

Supporting sponsors of the BASS Federation Nation: Lowrance and Triton Boats.

About BASS

For more than 40 years, BASS has served as the authority on bass fishing. With its considerable multi-media platforms and expansive tournament trail, BASS is guided by its mission to serve all fishing fans. Through its industry-leading publications Bassmaster Magazine, BASS Times and Fishing Tackle Retailer and comprehensive Web properties in ESPN360.com, ESPN’s sports broadband network, Bassmaster.com, BASSInsider.com and ESPNOutdoors.com, the organization is committed to delivering content true to the lifestyle. Additionally, television programming on ESPN2 continues to provide relevant content – from tips and techniques to in-depth tournament coverage – to passionate audiences.

The organization oversees the prestigious Bassmaster tournament trail, which includes the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bassmaster Opens, Women’s Bassmaster Tour and the Bassmaster Classic, the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing. Through its grassroots network, the BASS Federation Nation, BASS sanctions more than 20,000 events annually.

BASS also offers an array of services to its more than 500,000 members while spearheading progressive, positive change on issues related to conservation and water access. The organization is headquartered in Celebration, Fla.

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