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REESE
LEADS STREN SERIES EVENT ON
BETHEL ISLAND, Calif. (May 18, 2007) – Pro
Jimmy Reese of
“The fishing was pretty good today. Hopefully I
can do this again tomorrow,” said Reese, who has amassed more than $170,000
in career earnings with FLW Outdoors. “I have been very versatile this week.
I have been fishing new water everyday. Each day has been very different.
Some days the bite is better early with topwater baits and other days it
doesn’t pick up until later in the day with drop-shots and reaction baits.
Today, I made a long run and just went fishing. When I filled my limit
pretty early this morning I knew some of the pressure was going to be off of
me. I knew I had at least made the top-10 cut.
“I have been fishing seven or eight different
areas each day. When I am going to these areas I also stop and check places
in between kind of practicing for the next day and seeing what’s out there.
My plan for tomorrow is to just swing for the fences. I have a lot of stiff
competition behind me and I can’t let up at all.”
Reese said that he would be happy with a
20-pound sack tomorrow but he still may not win with that. He also said it
might take another 25-pound limit to win this event.
Rounding out the top five pros are Rob Riehl of
Also clearing the top 10 cut weight of 61
pounds, 7 ounces in the Pro Division are Justin Kerr of Simi Valley, Calif.;
Robert Lee of Angels Camp, Calif.; Brett Davies of Davis, Calif.; Ken Mah of
Elk Grove, Calif.; and Mike O’Shea of San Ramon, Calif.
Rodney Brinser 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
Mike Iloski of
“I caught some good fish today,” said Iloski,
who is no stranger to the leader boards in the Stren Series Western
Division. “I have had some great partners all week. They have kept me around
fish and helped me stay in contention for the win. My partner and I went out
looking for the big bite today and never found it. I still had my solid
limit by noon though. Every other day I already had five in the boat by 9
a.m.
“I have caught so many fish so many different
ways this week. I’ve caught them on reaction baits as well as finesse gear.
Hopefully I can keep this up and catch them good again tomorrow.”
Rounding out the top five
Also clearing the top 10 cut weight of 40
pounds, 12 ounces in the Co-angler Division are Michael Hong of San
Francisco, Calif.; Paul Fontaine of Brentwood, Calif.; Young Yang of Los
Angeles, Calif.; Adrian Pagan of Gilroy, Calif.; and Stewart Wong of
Sacramento, Calif.
Kenneth Yamasaki 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 Saturday morning
from Russo’s Marina located at 3995 Willow Road in Bethel Island, Calif.
Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 4893
Lone Tree Way in Antioch, Calif., beginning at 4 p.m. The takeoff and
weigh-in 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
