2018 FLW Tour Roster Announced

187 FLW Tour Pros ready for 2018

by FLW

Fishing League Worldwide (FLW) announced today the complete professional angler roster for the upcoming 2018 FLW Tour season, the 23^rd season of the FLW Tour. The 2018 FLW Tour features seven regular-season tournaments around the country with competition kicking off when FLW returns to Lake Okeechobee, Jan. 25-28 in Clewiston, Florida, and is headlined by the world championship of bass fishing, the Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Ouachita, Aug. 10-12 in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Demand for entry into the 2018 FLW Tour was unprecedented, with well over 200 pros registering last week. Per the FLW Tour qualifying process, 160 pros gained priority entry based on finishing the 2017 FLW Tour ranked in the top 100 pros or in the top 10 co-anglers, finishing a 2017 Costa FLW Series division ranked in the top 10 pros, or winning the TBF National Championship or the T-H Marine BFL All-American as a boater.

Additionally, there was record demand for sponsor entries, which do not count toward the maximum field size. To accommodate qualified anglers and sponsor entries, including those from loyal Ranger boat owners, the 2018 FLW Tour will feature 187 pros.

Click here for full FLW Tour Pro Roster

Hot Spring Arkansas to Host 2018 Forrest Wood Cup

Cup back to Hot Springs
FLW PRESS RELEASE

FLW, in conjunction with Visit Hot Springs and the State of Arkansas, announced Saturday that Hot Springs, Ark., will host the 2018 Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Ouachita Aug. 10-12.

Hot Springs has previously hosted four Forrest Wood Cup championships – one on Lake Hamilton (2005) and three on Lake Ouachita (2007, 2011 and 2015). The 2018 Forrest Wood Cup will again feature the most successful anglers from the FLW Tour, Costa FLW Series, T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League, YETI FLW College Fishing and The Bass Federation.

“Our whole city is excited by the fact that FLW has chosen Hot Springs for the fifth time as the host for the Forrest Wood Cup,” says Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs. “Hot Springs has established a wonderful relationship with FLW, and our audiences for the Cup and other FLW events have been large and enthusiastic. I know the 2018 Cup will find the same level of enthusiasm and warm hospitality that FLW has come to associate with the great fishing in Hot Springs.”

2017 Walmart FLW Tour Potomac River Day 2: Tom Monsoor Leads with 36-04lbs!

Bryab Thrift Wins 2017 Angler of the Year!
by Sean Ostruszka

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Monsoor grabs lead with hot morning.
(Photo: FLW)

Tom Monsoor is known for two things: swim jigs and rivers. Both may finally be converging perfectly for him after two days of the FLW Tour on the Potomac River presented by Costa Sunglasses.

Despite his strengths, Monsoor has had an up-and-down history on the Potomac, in large part due to the tides – he admits he never had really been able to figure them out. On day one, he thought it finally clicked, as he utilized a pattern he felt was tide dependent. Helping the matter was his boat position of 149, which allowed him to capitalize on both key feeding windows brought on by the tide changes in the morning and afternoon.

However, being in the first flight Friday, and with the tides backing up an hour, he knew he really only had the morning window. He made the most of it, cracking 16 pounds, 14 ounces to take over the lead with 36 pounds, 4 ounces.

On Friday the veteran hit the same two areas he caught all his fish Thursday. The first area is only 100-200 feet long, but he’s caught a limit there quickly both days despite it being “packed” with boats. The second area is the one that makes Monsoor grin, as it’s 100 yards wide and has been producing better quality.

“I had a limit by 8 a.m. on the first spot, and then I culled out four of them in the second spot,” says Monsoor. “I was done fishing by noon and just went looking after that.”

2017 Walmart FLW Tour Scheduled Announced!

New lakes for 2017
FLW PRESS RELEASE

In what has become an annual tradition at FLW, the 2017 Walmart FLW Tour schedule was announced at a press conference and industry gathering held Thursday on the show floor at ICAST in Orlando, Fla.

A crew of six Walmart FLW Tour pros joined FLW Weighmaster Chris Jones for the announcement. One-by-one, each pro was handed a sealed envelope containing the location and date of one of the six 2017 regular-season Tour events, which he then revealed to the crowd. In attendance were many of the world’s best anglers, tackle manufacturers and outdoor media.

Additional details regarding rules, entry dates and payouts will be announced later this year.

The schedule:

1. Lake Travis

Jonestown, Texas – Feb. 16-19         

Hosted by the City of Jonestown and Austin Sports Commission

2. Harris Chain

Leesburg, Fla. – March 9-12  

Hosted by Lake County, Fla.

Chris Johnston Wins FLW Tour Rookie of the Year!

Chris tied for 4th in AOY

by Chris Burgan

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Out of a huge class of 28 new Walmart FLW Tour anglers, Chris Johnston came out on top as the 2016 Rookie of the Year. He was recognized with the ROY trophy at Friday’s day-two weigh-in at the Walmart FLW Tour finale on Lake Champlain. He currently is in third place and will fish against the top 20 anglers on Saturday.

Banner year of Johnson. (Photo: FLW)

An accomplished angler near his home in Peterborough, Ontario, and throughout the northern United States in Costa FLW Series competition, Johnston can attribute some of his success to good timing.

20116 Walmart FLW Tour Pickwick Lake Day1: Gross Grabs Lead with 25 Pounds!

Wild weather sink many pros.

by Rob Newell

FLW PRESS RELEASE

The day one fishing at the Walmart FLW Tour event on Pickwick Lake presented by Quaker State and hosted by Florence/Lauderdale Tourism might best be described as windy, weird and wild.

Windy because a northwest wind of 15 to 20 mph with gusts to 28 mph throttled the field of anglers who were hoping to fish open water areas in the lake’s lower end. The wind blowing against the current stacked up sizeable rollers better suited for the ocean. The weigh-in line buzzed with stories of speared waves, wet clothes and damaged equipment.

Despite windy conditions several ledge guys did very well. (Photo: FLW)

Weird because in a very unfortunate turn of events, some 30 pros and co-anglers who locked up into Wilson Lake this morning were basically locked out of the lock in the afternoon due to a barge that had issues when locking through. Most of those anglers were penalized for being late and about 20 of them missed their check in times altogether and ended the day with a zero, despite catching some solid limits.

2016 Walmart FLW Tour Lake Okeechobee Day 3: Hallman Punching Up a Huge Lead!

Chris Johnston Jumps to 4th. 

by Rob Newell
FLW PRESS RELEASE
The third day of Walmart FLW Tour events always seem to be the stingiest days. Whether it’s due to condition changes or fishing pressure or both, day three is the seam where anglers’ primary locations and patterns from the first two days begin to fray. As a result, anglers fishing in the top-20 round on day three are faced with some difficult decisions that boil down to staying committed to their primary gig or switching up their game to try something else for a new window that might be opening.

This week at the Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Ranger Boats on Lake Okeechobee, tournament leader Bradley Hallman, who has sacked up about 25 pounds per day the last two days, says his day-three decision was pretty easy: stay committed to flipping and punching matted reed heads.

This 8 pounder helps keep the pack 13 1/2 pounds behind.  (Photo: FLW)

That decision resulted in being one fish shy of a limit on day three. But one of his four bass weighed 8 pounds, 10 ounces, pushing Hallman’s catch to 14 pounds, 3 ounces to give him a three-day total of 64-10. His lead over second-place angler Alex Davis is now 13 1/2 pounds going into the fourth and final day in this event that is hosted by Roland and Mary Ann Martin's Marina and Resort and the Hendry County Tourism and Development Council.

2016 Walmart FLW Tour Lake Okeechobee Day 1: Bradley Hallman Leads!

Vincent Yonemitsu of Thornhill, Ontario leads Co-anglers

by Rob Newell

FLW PRESS RELEASE

The old saying is that the third time is the charm, but for Bradley Hallman of Norman, Okla., it’s more like the first time is the charm. Hallman is fishing his first Walmart FLW Tour event on Lake Okeechobee. It’s the first day of the first Tour event of 2016, and Hallman sits in first place with 25 pounds even.

Hallman's 25 pound limit grabs lead as flooded Big O remains difficult.
(Photo: FLW)

Hallman even contends that this is the first time he has ever fished Lake Okeechobee – the key word being “lake.”

“I fished an FLW Series event here in ’07 or ’08, but the lake was so low we all fished in the rim ditch – we called it the ‘rim ditch tournament,’” he recalls. “I never even got to go out on the main lake for that event.”

2015 Walmart FLW Tour Lake Chickamauga Day 1: Billy McDonald Leads Ledge Fest!

Two monsters push McDonald to 29 pounds!

by Rob Newell

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Prior to the start of Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Igloo Coolers on Lake Chickamauga this morning, the biggest limit of bass Billy McDonald had ever weighed in at a tournament was 25 pounds, 2 ounces of smallmouths on Lake St. Clair.

This is the kind that helps lead tournaments.
(Photo: FLW)

Today, he crushed that personal best mark by more than 4 pounds with a five-bass limit that weighed 29 pounds, 12 ounces. His two best bass weighed 8 pounds and 7 pounds, 9 ounces.

If you think McDonald tapped the “mega-school” of a lifetime, guess again. He didn’t even scour the ledges with his DownScan or play musical shell beds with other boats.

2014 Walmart FLW Tour Beaver Lake Day 1: Wheeler Tops All with 15Lbs.

Beaver Fickle Yet Friendly to Few

by Rob Newell 

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Jacob Wheeler has a plan to win the Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Rayovac on Beaver Lake this week. That plan involves primarily the largemouth species, a target weight of 14 pounds per day and a lot of fish management.
Today, Wheeler surpassed his target by nearly 2 pounds with a 15-pound, 14-ounce catch that puts him in the driver’s seat at Beaver Lake, in the lead by just a scant 5 ounces over second-place pro Bryan Thrift.
“Largemouths are the way to win here at Beaver Lake,” Wheeler says. “They are the fish to go the distance here, and that’s what I’m focusing on.”

Wheeler plans to focus on shallow largemouth. (FLW Photo)

Wheeler claims to have roughly 100 waypoints signifying fish he found on beds during practice. Today he plucked just three of them and caught two “just power fishing,” and they were all largemouths.
“To me this tournament is all about fish management,” he continues, “fishing for certain ones on certain days and taking advantage of the small windows to see the fish based on wind direction. These fish have all been up for a while now, and they’re smart – extremely hard to catch. In order to catch them I have to be able to see a fish the whole time I’m fishing for it. That way I can tell how the fish reacts to certain baits because that tells me a lot about how catchable the fish is. If I’m just casting to a fish that I can occasionally see and can’t really tell where it is or what it’s doing, it’s just a waste of time. I wasted 35 minutes on one I never caught today because the wind just would not let me see what was going on.”

Standings Below

2015 Walmart FLW Tour Lake Toho Day 1: JT Kenney Sacks 29 Pounds!

Kenny and King Take Control.
FLW PRESS RELEASE

There was fuel, and there was flame.
The fuel was in the form of a delayed largemouth bass spawn on Lake Toho that had been pushed back for several weeks due to low water temperatures and high water flows through the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. The biological clocks of Toho’s bass have been ticking, so to speak.

Kenny states he's on them big time. (Photo: FLW)

The flame was in the form of a fast warm-up over the last three days, a full moon occurring right now and water temperatures rising nearly 10 degrees in the last 72 hours.
At the day-one takeoff of the Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Mercury this morning, everyone held his breath for the combustion that was about to occur.
And when fuel met flame there were a few fiery flare-ups, but not of the size that many expected.
In all, the 20-pound mark was reached by seven anglers on a warm, balmy day that had five-alarmer written all over it.
Exactly why the bite was not as good as expected is still in question. Many pros reported a vanishing act of bedding bass that had just started to show up during practice, but have now disappeared despite highly favorable conditions
At the top of the standings are Florida ace JT Kenney and Missouri veteran Stacey King, who checked in with 29-14 and 28-1, respectively.

Top Ten Standings Below

2015 Walmart FLW Tour Field

FLW Press Release
The 20th season of the Walmart FLW Tour will feature 152 of the best professional anglers from 26 states and one Canadian province.
FLW announced in October plans to limit the field of the Walmart FLW Tour to 150 professional anglers in 2015. Stacey King of Reeds Spring, Mo., and Clark Wendlandt of Leander, Texas, will be allowed to return to the Tour on exemption after withdrawing in 2014 due to medical reasons, bringing the field to 152.
In addition to offering the sport’s top prizes this season, the FLW Tour will pay out $10,000 down to 60th place, providing tournament anglers with the best overall payouts for the lowest overall investment. The six-tournament season will kick off March 5-8 at Lake Toho in Kissimmee, Fla.
The 2015 Walmart FLW Tour will feature nine former Tour Anglers of the Year and nine Forrest Wood Cup champions, as well as 17 rookie pros.

2015 Walmart FLW Tour Field
*denotes Tour rookies

Here is a list of the full field:
Tracy Adams – Wilkesboro, N.C.
Keith Amerson – Selmer, Tenn.
Matt Arey – Shelby, N.C.
Todd Auten – Lake Wylie, S.C.
Adrian Avena – Vineland, N.J.
Jeff Barth – Marshfield, Wis.
Clayton Batts – Macon, Ga.
Chris Baumgardner – Gastonia, N.C.
Drew Benton – Panama City, Fla.
James Biggs – Euless, Texas

Ish Monroe's reaction to the 2015 Walmart FLW Tour schedule with IBASSIN

The Walmart FLW 2015 Tour has been announced! IBASSIN.com was on hand as the Tour locations were announced. We got Ish Monrow, BASS Elite star and FLW Tour Pro reactions to next year's lakes and Tour stops.

Andy Morgan's reaction to the 2015 Walmart FLW Tour schedule with IBASSIN

The Walmart FLW 2015 Tour has been announced! IBASSIN.com was on hand as the Tour locations were announced. We got Andy Morgan, 2 time FLW Angler of the Year reactions to next year's lakes and Tour stops.

David Dudley's reaction to the 2015 Walmart FLW Tour schedule with IBASSIN

The Walmart FLW 2015 Tour has been announced! IBASSIN.com was on hand as the Tour locations were announced. We got David Dudley FLW Cup Champ  reactions to next year's lakes and Tour stops.

Skip Johnson wins 2014 Kentucky Lake Walmart FLW Tour Event!

by Curtis Niedermier
FLW Press Release

Sometimes simple strategies are the best strategies. And they don’t get much simpler than the game plan put together by Michigan pro Skip Johnson on Kentucky Lake for the sixth and final stop of the 2014 Walmart FLW Tour season.

His strategy: Don’t move.

Johnson spent all four days of competition on one hole on Kentucky Lake’s southern end. He landed more than 22 pounds each day Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, a string of lost fish cost Johnson, and he brought in just 19-12.

But Johnson rallied on Sunday. All day long he hammered away, catching more than 75 fish and culling up to the day’s best limit of 24 pounds.

The four-day, 88-pound, 10-ounce performance earned Johnson his first career Tour victory and a check for $100,000.

The triangle

“The key was to stay – don’t leave,” Johnson says about his performance on the final day of the event, which was presented by Evinrude and hosted by Henry County Alliance. “I parked right there and ran my little triangle again.”

The triangle describes the shape of a row of more than a dozen waypoints that Johnson dropped along a creek channel that snakes from a shallow flat out to the main shipping channel.

“It was a winding creek channel with old oxbows and humps in the oxbows,” he explains. “They were on the edge of the ledges dropping into the channel.”

The edges where he caught his fish were rocky and topped out in 10 to 12 feet of water. They dropped off into about 15.

Each day, Johnson worked in and out along the creek channel – once even following it all the way up onto the flat, just to see if any bass had moved in shallow.

2014 Walmart FLW Tour Kentucky Lake Day 3: Redington Remains Leader, Morgan Wins AOY

by Curtis Niedermier
FLW Press Release

Up and down. Up and down.

Kentucky Lake has been like a rollercoaster this week for the pros fishing the Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Evinrude and hosted by Henry County Alliance.

One day is a whackfest, but the next is a grind. One hour can produce a 20-pound stringer, while the next hour is a zero.

Tom Redington earned the second FLW top 10 of his career and is leading the Walmart FLW Tour event on Kentucky Lake with 65-12 over three days. (Photo by Garrick Dixon FLW)

The one pro who seems to have the most solid grasp on how to hang tight through fast, slow, up and down is Tom Redington. The Royse City, Texas, pro extended his lead on the third day of competition with an 18-pound, 13-ounce limit. It was a slower day, but enough to keep him at the top. His three-day total of 65-12 is 1 pound, 2 ounces ahead of pros Skip Johnson and Jason Lambert. And every one of the 10 pros who’ll fish the final day is within 4 pounds of the leader.

That’s one big Kentucky Lake keeper separating nine other pros from the title that Redington worked so hard for today.

“It was a tough day,” Redington says. “I went to my limit hole in the morning, and there were no fish there. I left after five minutes. I spent the first hour running around trying to find a school."

Redington relied heavily on his Lowrance depth finders to scan each spot and quickly judge the size and feeding potential of the bass hanging out there – a much more efficient way to compete than testing schools by fishing them.

He found schools, but they were the opposite of the mega-schools that Kentucky Lake is famous for. Redington wasn’t sure if it was boat pressure, sun, wind or some other factor that caused the change from yesterday, when he went on a two-hour flurry that produced his 24-pound, 9-ounce limit and helped him take the lead. Whatever it was, his schools busted up into smaller clusters, and he never was able to find a window of heavy activity where the right class of bass was feeding. Almost all day it was small schools and small bass – he caught nearly 25 keepers, just not the right ones.

2014 Walmart FLW Tour Kentucky Lake Day 2: Redington Rocks 24-09

Huge weights mix leader board.  

FLW Press Release

When the bass go into attack mode, so does Tom Redington. The Royse City, Texas, pro hammered a 24-pound, 9-ounce limit today at the Walmart FLW Tour event on Kentucky Lake presented by Evinrude and hosted by Henry County Alliance.

                                                          Texas pro Tom Redington sacked up 24-9 on day two and 

rose from fourth place into the lead. (Photo: Colin Moore FLW)

According to Redington, a midday front that swept across the area with high winds, rain and rumblings of thunder motivated bass to line up just how he likes them on the Tennessee River’s famous ledges. The result is Redington taking the tournament lead into the weekend with a two-day total of 46 pounds, 15 ounces.

“This ledge fishing is awesome,” Redington says. “There are fish all over the place. I ran a lot of new water today. Yesterday I had to work for them. I went to my best schools and caught one or two. When the storms rolled in, it was hammer-down time. The schools were in attack position, and they bit like they were supposed to.”

So what does “attack position” look like? For starters, it’s something that pros see on their depth finders. And it’s difficult for most of them to explain, but the best in the business – like Redington, Randy Haynes and Scott Martin – can recognize it when they see it. If they don’t see it, they don’t take time to fish.

2014 Walmart FLW Tour Kentucky Lake Day 1: Brett Hite Leads

Countless Limits are Caught on Day 1 

by Curtis Niedermier
FLW Press Release

What goes around comes around. And for Brett Hite, an all-star Walmart FLW Tour season that began with a statement win in the season-opener on Lake Okeechobee has wound its way throughout the country to Kentucky Lake for the season-finale, where he once again jumped out in front today.

Hite holds up one of his bass as the crowd
is awash in big bass. Kentucky Lake looks
like a slug fest. (Photo: FLW)

Hite’s 24-pound, 14-ounce limit leads a star-studded top 20 that includes ledge-fishing experts, three former Forrest Wood Cup champions, three past AOY winners and a pack of FLW millionaires, all of them hoping to end Hite’s chances of bookend 2014 Tour victories.

This tournament, which is presented by Evinrude and hosted Henry County Alliance, is a ledge-fishing shootout. Everyone knows it. But for Hite, the keys to besting everyone else today were timing and precision.

“Luckily I had an early boat draw,” he says. “I ran to a spot I found late in the day on the third day of practice. One other guy came in there right after me, but I got lined up in the right position. It was literally cast after cast, and it was all big ones. First thing this morning, it was obvious the fish were active. As the day progressed, it was one or two here and there.

“It [the school] is spread out a little,” adds Hite, whose limit today included the Bridgford Big Bass, a 7-pound, 5-ouncer. “It’s a pretty good stretch, but there are a couple of key spots where the shells are, and there are some stumps and gizzard shad.”

The front deck of Hite’s Ranger is littered with rods, and he rolled through his options each time he needed to re-trigger the school.

2014 Walmart FLW Tour Lake Pickwick Day 3: Greg Hackney Leads by 7 pounds!

Greg Hackney continues to dominate but Ehrler making a big charge.
by Curtis Niedermier

FLW Press Release

FLORENCE, Ala. - There was no 30-pound mega-limit weighed in today in Florence, Ala., but tournament leader Greg Hackney still hauled in a 22-pound, 4-ounce stringer from Pickwick Lake on a day that nine of the top 10 pros described as a grind.

Greg has a magic spot that is kicking out big bass. Today the
place didn't produce as well as the first two days.
(Photo: FLW)

Hackney’s three-day total is 75 pounds, 14 ounces, which extends his lead to 7-13 over California ace Brent Ehrler, who weighed an identical limit as Hackney’s today. Hackney will be boat No. 1 on the final day of this Walmart FLW Tour showdown, which is presented by Straight Talk Wireless.

Interestingly, the one piece of the puzzle that most anglers have been looking for this week is current, and today the Tennessee River was ripping in the wake of two afternoon thunderstorms that drenched the Tennessee Valley at the end of the workweek. Coupled with a water-level rise, the current turned out to be too much of a good thing, and Hackney’s magic 30-pound spot didn’t fire today like it did yesterday.

“There was a lot of current,” Hackney says. “You’d think that would have helped. Maybe I caught too many [yesterday]. It was OK today, but it took me all day to catch them.”

The Gonzales, La., pro revealed a few more details about his best spot today. It’s a 1 1/2-foot break topped with a “live” mussel shell bed. He knows it’s a live one because he’ll occasionally catch snails, and when he does, he knows he’s on the juice.

Mussel beds are nothing new to ledge fisherman on the Tennessee River, but this one has an extra ingredient that sweetens the deal for Pickwick’s biggest largemouths: giant gizzard shad. As in, gizzard shad so big that Hackney hasn’t even found a bait big enough to “match the hatch.” The 5-pound-plus “hammers” are choking down the jumbo baitfish whenever they slide up onto the structure. When it goes down, Hackney fires in with one of two unidentified lures, and the action is extremely fast.