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CAMPIOTTI LEADS STREN SERIES EVENT
ON CLEAR
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. (April 26, 2007) – Pro Gino
Campiotti of Manteca, Calif., caught a five-bass limit weighing 22 pounds, 9
ounces Thursday to capture the lead in the $275,225 Stren Series Western
tournament on Clear Lake. With a two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 51-2, he
now holds a 13-ounce lead over second place pro Jason Borofka of Salinas,
Calif., who managed to haul in a total of 10 bass weighing 50-5 during the
first two days of competition.
“The weather changed up a bit and I tried to
fish the same pattern I had fished the day before,” said Campiotti, who
fished an untraditional shaky-head worm to boat most of his bass. “I had a
limit of two-pounders before 9 a.m., so I changed colors and upgraded my
weight a little bit that way. By 2 p.m., I had close to 13 pounds in the
boat.”
Campiotti threw a swimbait in practice and
caught small fish, but couldn’t find any bass of considerable size.
“Generally I throw a swimbait in cloudy
conditions,” Campiotti said. “That’s when I think it works best. I caught a
couple of fish near the end of the day today on the swimbait. I positioned
the boat so my co-angler could flip docks and get a solid limit, and I
fished the swimbait out of the front of the boat, and I ended up hooking one
that weighed about five pounds.”
Campiotti plans to continue to fish the pattern
that has worked for him so far — fishing the shaky-head worm in 7 to 15 feet
of water.
“I’m keying on a definite pre-spawn pattern in
deeper water,” Campiotti said. “I’m keeping that bait in the water maybe
seven or eight minutes before I cast again. Sometimes I shake it, and
sometimes I let it just sit there. And I barely feel the bite when it’s
there.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Jared Stone
of
Jeff Billings of
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
Kyle Clement of
“The day started off pretty good,” said
Clement, who has won a few local tournaments on
“I’m on a pretty good swimbait bite, but it’s
more of a morning bite,” Clement said. “I only caught one fish on it after 9
a.m. I’m going to continue to throw the swimbait, but I’ll use a drop-shot
rig to fill out my limit. Then it’s back to the swimbait.”
Rounding out the top five
Holwerda earned $144 for the Snickers Big Bass
award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 13-pound, 1-ounce bass.
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
Konocti Harbor Resort located at
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.
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