Tour to Date: The March 12-15 Table Rock Lake Tour stop in Branson, Mo., saw 14,983 fishing fans in attendance over the course of the four-day…
Tour to Date: The March 12-15 Table Rock Lake Tour stop in Branson, Mo., saw 14,983 fishing fans in attendance over the course of the four-day competition. The Branson event recorded the largest crowd to witness a final day weigh-in FLW Outdoors history. With four more qualifying events to go until the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup presented by BP and Castrol, which will be held July 30-Aug. 2 on the Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, Pa., the Land OLakes Angler of the Year points race is starting to take form and anglers who have experienced rocky starts to the 2009 season are rethinking their strategies and eyeing the remainder of the schedules stops in North Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky and New York.
Hooks & Lures:
Team Chevy angler Anthony Gagliardis fourth career win put him even closer to the $1 million mark. Gagliardi now has won more than $970,800 in FLW Outdoors events.
Professional bass fishings first instant millionaire, Team Folgers angler Scott Suggs, posted his highest FLW Tour finish (2nd place) since his historic $1 million win in the 2007 Forrest Wood Cup in Hot Springs, Ark.
Scott Canterbury notched his second consecutive top-10 finish (3rd place) in 2009. He currently is ranked second in the Land OLakes Angler of the Year points race.
Dan Moreheads fourth-place finish marked his strongest effort since a win at Beaver Lake in 2003, the year he won the Land OLakes Angler of the Year title.
Team BP angler David Walker continues his phenomenal beginning to the 2009 season with a fifth-place finish at Table Rock Lake that followed a sixth-place effort at Lake Guntersville. Walker currently leads the Land OLakes Angler of the Year points race.
Glenn DeLong, the rookie who finished 13th at the season-starting Lake Guntersville event, posted a 45th-place finish at Table Rock Lake.
Team BP angler Shinichi Fukaes 10th-place finish marks his highest finish since the 2008 season opener at Lake Toho, where he finished fifth.
Team Berkley rookie Stetson Blaylock has notched a 23rd-place finish and a 35th-place finish in 2009 and stands 12th in the Land OLakes Angler of the Year points race. Blaylocks move to the front of the boat this season follows a five-year stint in the co-angler side of FLW Tour competition. Blaylock racked up four wins and 18 top-10 finishes and more than $183,000 in FLW Outdoors winnings prior to the 2009 season.
The next Tour event will be the National Guard Open at Lake Norman April 23-26. Sean Hoernke won the 2008 Charlotte, N.C., event. The Texas angler won that event by more than four pounds.
The highest finish by a North Carolina angler at the 2008 National Guard Open at Lake Norman was a 10th-place effort by Chris Baumgardner. Only two other North Carolinians cracked the top 50, proving that home-lake advantage may not apply at Lake Norman.
