LAKE LIVINGSTON TO HOST WAL-MART TEXAS TOURNAMENT TRAIL EVENT

LIVINGSTON, Texas (April 10, 2007) – The Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail presented by Abu Garcia will make its second of three $226,500 regular-season stops April 21-22 on Lake Livingston. The lucrative tournament will feature as many as 400 of Texas’ finest bass-fishing pros and co-anglers casting for top awards of $65,000 and $44,000, respectively.

“The lake has been fishing really tough lately,” said pro Rob Burns of Plano, Texas, who won the 2006 TTT Championship on Lake Stillhouse. “The water level has been low for quite sometime and now it is higher than normal. With the water coming up, it has submerged a lot more vegetation and has the fish scattered out. Usually, I would say that cranking and flipping soft-plastics around docks and stumps would be the hot pattern but with all this water and new submerged vegetation it might be spinnerbaits around the mats in shallow water. Anglers will mainly be targeting postspawn fish around submerged bushes and other cover in 6 feet of water or less.”

“I think it will be a tough event. It will probably only take 25 to 28 pounds for a two-day weight to win this event,” he said.

Anglers will take off at 6:30 each morning from Waterfront Lodge and Marina located at 371 Navajo Trail in Onalaska, Texas. Weigh-ins will also be held at the marina beginning at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22. The community is invited to attend all activities.

The Lake Livingston Texas Tournament Trail event is hosted by the Lake Livingston Area Tourism Council.

The winning pro will receive a top award of $50,000, which includes a $40,000 Ranger 519VX powered by a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and equipped with Minn Kota trolling motor, Lowrance electronics and EverStart batteries plus $10,000 cash. If Ranger contingency guidelines are met, the winner will also receive a $15,000 cash bonus for a top award of $65,000. Ranger will also award $5,000 to the highest-finishing pro in the Ranger Cup incentive program, and Yamaha will kick in an additional $2,500 if the Ranger Cup winner’s boat is powered by a Yamaha outboard. All told, the winning pro will earn as much as $72,500 if all contingency guidelines are met.

The top 50 pros and co-anglers in the TTT based on Angler of the Year points standings will advance to the $210,000 Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail Championship Oct. 13-14 on Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Jasper. The winning pro at the championship will earn as much as $75,000 in cash and prizes, including a Ranger 519VX.

In TTT competition, 200 points are awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 for third, and so on. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points. These points determine Angler of the Year standings. Pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day, with pros supplying the boat, controlling boat movement and competing against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back deck against other co-anglers. The full field competes Saturday and Sunday with the winners determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from both days.

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