KnoxviLlE, Tenn. (April 1, 2007) – Yamaha pro Mark Davis of Mount Ida, Ark., caught a final-round total of eight bass weighing 27 pounds, 11 ounces to win $100,000 in the $1 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour event presented by BP on Fort Loudoun-Tellico lakes. Davis topped his closest rival, Kellogg’s pro Dave Lefebre of Union City, Pa., by more than two pounds to earn the win and 200 points toward qualifying for the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup in Hot Springs, Ark., where the winner will earn as much as $1 million – the biggest award in bass fishing – Aug. 5.
“I swung for the fences,” said Davis, who earned his first win on the FLW Tour. “It’s great that I finally won one of these. I have come close many times, and it’s sweet to be here on top. This place is a great fishery, but I had to go to great lengths to figure these fish out. I think the wind kind of hurt me today. I needed slick, calm conditions for my wakebait pattern, so I had to make some adjustments. I tend to fish by the seat of my pants, but I couldn’t do that here. I had to slow down and concentrate on one area and stick to my guns. I thought I was around enough fish to win no matter what the conditions were. I was extremely lucky to win this.”
Davis opened the tournament Thursday in ninth place with five bass weighing 16-5. He then jumped into third place Friday with a five-bass catch weighing 13 pounds, 15 ounces and advanced to the final round of 10 pros with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 30-4. On Saturday weights were cleared and Davis caught five bass weighing 19-13 to advance to the final day of competition in first place. Davis added another three bass weighing 7-14 to his final-round total Sunday.
Davis was throwing a combination of swimbaits and wakebaits around points, humps and other submerged structure in 4 to 10 feet of water near spawning areas.
Lefebre caught a final-round total of 10 bass weighing 25-11 to claim second place and $50,000.
“I lost a key fish today that might have hurt me,” said Lefebre, who was the 2006 FLW Series Angler of the Year.
“The fish have been really spooky and tough to sight-fish. Being from up north, I have lots of practice sight-fishing in rough weather so the conditions suited me fine. This area is great. I love the Tennessee River chain. It has a lot of current and good numbers of fish. Overall, I think it was a great event.”
Rounding out the top 10 pros are Land O’Lakes pro Keith Williams of Conway, Ark. (10 bass, 24-12, $40,000); National Guard pro Derek Jones of Chicago, Ill. (six bass, 22-6, $30,000); BP pro Shinichi Fukae of Mineola, Texas (10 bass, 22-3, $20,000); Yamaha pro Jay Yelas of Tyler, Texas (nine bass, 22-3, $19,000); Harmon Davis of Marlow, Okla. (10 bass, 21-12, $18,000); M&M’s pro John Sappington of Willard, Mo. (10 bass, 21-6, $17,000); Castrol pro Darrel Robertson of Jay, Okla. (nine bass, 20-5, $16,000) and Thanh Le of Las Vegas (eight bass, 12-1, $15,000).
Overall there were 44 bass weighing 113 pounds, 4 ounce caught in the Pro Division Sunday. The catch included six five-bass limits.
On Saturday, Terry Chapman of Stanley, N.C., won the Co-angler Division and $20,000 with a five bass limit weighing 9 pounds, 6 ounces followed by Land O’Lakes co-angler Aaron McManaway of Altamont, Ill., in second place with four bass weighing 7-1 worth $10,000.
Chapman opened the tournament in 39th place Thursday with two bass weighing 4-3 while fishing with pro Scott Dobson of Clarkston, Mich. On Friday he jumped to ninth place on the strength of a three-bass catch weighing 7-10 while fishing with pro Katsutoshi Furuswa of Tokyo. He wrapped up his win while fishing with Williams.
“This is great,” said Chapman, who now has two FLW Tour victories as a co-angler. “It has been a while since I have made a top-10. We fished some points really close to the dam because Keith thought he had exhausted his area. This new pattern was a co-anglers dream. There was a lot of open-water and easy fishing. I only had five fish, and luckily they were the right ones. I’m going to go home and put this money in the bank and keep fishing.”
Chapman was throwing a combination of a ChatterBait, spinnerbait and wake baits to catch his fish all week.
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers were David Hudson of Jasper, Ala. (three bass, 5-5, $9,000); Ryan Valentine of Jonesboro, Ga. (one bass, 4-3, $8,000); J.B. Young of Deer Park, Texas (one bass, 4-2, $7,000); Kenta Kimura of Livingston, Texas (two bass, 3-15, $6,000); Eddie Griggs of Richmond, Va. (one bass, 1-11, $5,000); Thomas Helton of Charleston, Tenn. (one bass, 13 ounces, $4,000); John Barrett of Fayetteville, N.C. (zero bass, $3,000) and Kevin Olivet of Greenback, Tenn. (zero bass, $2,000).
Coverage of the tournament will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States on April 29 and May 6 as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to 429 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed fishing program 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. The next FLW Tour stop will be the $1.5 million National Guard Open on Lake Norman in Charlotte, N.C., April 26-29.
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 exceeding $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, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.
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