OROVILLE, Calif. (May 2009) – The $6.5 million Stren Series™is headed to Lake Oroville May 14-16 for a $260,750 bass tournament. As many as 400 pros and co-anglers will be competing in the third Western Division tournament of the season for top awards of $65,000 and $30,000, respectively.
“Lake Oroville is going to be set up for some absolutely phenomenal fishing,” said Roy Hawk, who has back-to-back wins in the first two Stren Series Western Division events of the year. “I’m sure we’ll break the record for the most limits weighed. That place is just loaded, loaded, loaded with fish.”
Lake Oroville is a dammed canyon with a healthy population of standing timber, and Hawk said the water level is at about ¾ capacity. Hawk said anglers will find success with a variety of baits, including soft plastics, jerkbaits and swimbaits.
“Plastics are king as far as numbers of fish are concerned, but I’ll be looking for a reaction bite,” Hawk said. “I’ll sacrifice numbers of fish for quality fish.
“I haven’t fished Oroville in eight or nine years, but I look forward to getting out there and looking for some bigger fish,” Hawk added.
Anglers will take off from the Spillway Launch (Dam) located at the north end of Oroville Dam, on Canyon Drive in Oroville at 6:30 each morning. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Spillway Launch (Dam) beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Walmart store located at 355 Oro Dam Blvd. E. in Oroville beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
The Lake Oroville Stren Series tournament is hosted by the City of Oroville and the Oroville Area Chamber of Commerce.
Pros will fish for a top award of $25,000 plus a 198VX Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor and Lowrance electronics if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $7,500 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant in the contingency program.
Co-anglers will cast for a top award of a 177TR Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and trailer. If the co-angler meets the Ranger Cup guidelines, they will earn an additional $5,000. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $2,500 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant in the contingency program.
Competitors will also be vying for valuable points that could earn them a trip 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. 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 championship. 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.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2009 alone the organization is offering more bass and walleye anglers from coast to coast the chance to win more than $33 million through 231 tournaments. 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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