ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9607010125
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
The evolution of competitive bass fishing has taken a quantum leap with the announcement that a June 1997 tournament called the Forrest Wood Open will feature a $1 million purse. The winner will receive $200,000, the largest prize ever awarded in competitive fishing.
That kind of money makes the traditional $50,000 first-place prize of the BASS Masters Classic look antiquated, something pro anglers have been saying for several years. Now B.A.S.S. agrees. It has increased the prize to $100,000.
The Forrest Wood Open, scheduled for Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota, is part of a package of seven tournaments, including one at Virginia/North Carolina's Kerr Lake. The circuit is called the FLW Tour and is put together by Genmar Holdings, J.M. Associates and Operation Bass. The first five tournaments of the 1997 tour each will feature a $368,400 purse with a first-place prize of $100,000.
``We are committed to elevating competitive angling and the participants to the plane of notoriety enjoyed by other sports'' like golf and tennis, said Irwin Jacobs, who is chairman of Genmar, the manufacturer of Ranger Boats.
Operation Bass is the organization that conducts the Red Man Tournament Trail, a circuit for the working-man fisherman. J.M. Associates produces the Jerry McKinnis ``Fishing Hole'' show on ESPN.
Television plays a major role in the FLW tour.
``It is a made-for-television tournament circuit,'' said Brain Sayner, of Operation Bass.
The format is four days of competition when 150 pros are paired with 150 amateurs. The five top pro anglers move into a final round of competition when each angler is paired with an ESPN cameraman.
``It is the first show that ever captures the excitement of the tournament,'' Sayner said during a telephone interview from his office in Kentucky.
The FLW tour was introduced early this year, but didn't grab many headlines until word of the $1 million bass tournament was announced recently during a Kerr Lake contest won by Mike Terry.
Mike who?
You get the idea that some of the early FLW stars aren't high-profile tournament fishermen, but that will change.
``The FLW Tour will build its own stars,'' Sayner said.
And it is destined to hook a bunch of the pros from B.A.S.S. Some of them already are aboard. David Fritts finished third at Kerr; Denny Brauer was fifth.
The anglers who supported the tour this year will get first crack at the 1997 openings, Sayner said.
While B.A.S.S certainly has taken notice of the new kid on the dock - ``It is the buzz of the industry,'' Sayner said - FLW backers see it as good competition for an organization that may have grown a little fat and complacent.
``We have gone out of our way to schedule events that don't conflict with B.A.S.S,'' he said. ``It is not intended to undo B.A.S.S.''
The name Forrest Wood was attached to the new circuit to give it unshakable credibility. Wood is revered in bass angling circles, not just as the man who modernized bass fishing with his Ranger boats, but as a gentleman with integrity and honor.
Wood, by the way, maintains close ties to B.A.S.S. The competitors in the Aug.8-10 Classic in Alabama will be riding his Rangers.
The 1997 FLW schedule: Lake Okeechobee, Clewiston, Fla., Jan.8-11; Ross Barnett Lake, Jackson, Miss., Feb.26-March 1; Lake Eufaula, Eufaula, Ala., March 26-29; Kerr Lake, Henderson, N.C., April 30-May 3; Kentucky Lake, Gilbertsville, Ky., May 28-31; Lake Minnetonka (Forrest Wood Open), Minneapolis, June 25-28; Lake Ferguson (FLW championship), Greenville, Miss., Nov. 5-8.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB