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BETHEL ISLAND, Calif. (May 17, 2007) – Pro Neil
Campbell of Fallbrook, Calif., caught a five-bass limit weighing 30 pounds,
1 ounce Thursday to capture the lead in the $275,225 Stren Series Western
Division tournament presented by Yamaha on the California Delta. With a
two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 49-6, he now holds an 1-pound, 14-ounce
lead over second place pro Jimmy Reese of Witter Springs, Calif., who
managed to haul in a total of 10 bass weighing 47-8 during the first two
days of competition.
“Today was great,” said Campbell, who is
targeting prespawn and spawning bass with soft-plastics around bedding areas
in 12 feet of water. “I have been making pretty long runs and fishing
different areas each day. I seem to catch fish at every place I stop. Today,
I just went into one of my areas hoping to come out with at least a 15-pound
limit. I just kept working the area over and over and came up with the right
bites. I put the trolling motor down this morning and I didn’t pick it up
until it was time to head back to weigh-in.
“I feel my area is replenishing itself with
fish everyday. I am just going to go back in there and do that same thing
all over again.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Mike Goodwin
of
Jeff Lamy of San Jose, Calif., earned $268 for
the Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to a 11-pound,
14-ounce bass.
Pros are competing for as much as $65,000,
including a 519VX Ranger powered by Evinrude or Yamaha if contingency
guidelines are met, and valuable points
toward qualifying for the $1 million Stren Series Championship in
Curt Dowhower of
“I had a pretty good day,” said Dowhower, who
was power fishing with tubes and jigs targeting spawn and postspawn fish.
“The big bite seemed to be a little off today but we still caught fish. I
was culling by 9 this morning. So far this has been a great experience. I
have had two great partners and they have really helped me out.”
Rounding out the top five
Chris Osheroff of
The top 40 co-anglers from each Stren Series
division will also advance to the championship, where they will fish for as
much as $70,000. The highest-finishing co-angler from each division at the
championship will then advance to the 2008 Forrest Wood Cup.
Anglers will take off at 6:30 each morning from
Russo’s Marina located at 3995 Willow Road in Bethel Island, Calif. Friday’s
weigh-in will be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in
will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 4893 Lone Tree Way in Antioch,
Calif., beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the
public.
Stren Series tournaments are four-day events consisting of two rounds. The
entire field competes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. At the conclusion of
Friday’s weigh-in, the field is cut to the top 10 pros
FLW
Outdoors historically maintains a 98 percent live release rate in all of its
bass tournaments.
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 of nearly $43 million through 241 events in 2007.
Wal-Mart and many of
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its
tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.
