$9.5 Million Wal-Mart FLW Tour to Visit Lake Toho

KISSIMMEE, Fla., Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The $9.5 million Wal-Mart(TM) FLW Tour(R) will stop in Kissimmee, Fla., Feb. 28-March 2 for its first regular-season tournament, a $1 million event hosted by the Central Florida Sports Commission and the Kissimmee-St. Cloud Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The tournament, which ranks as the largest and most lucrative held in Florida this year, will feature 400 anglers from 35 states, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Australia and Japan fishing Lake Toho for top awards of $125,000 cash in the Pro Division and $25,000 cash in the Co-angler Division. It also kicks off the most lucrative fantasy sports league in history, FLW Fantasy Fishing(TM), which offers total awards of $7.3 million, including $100,000 cash guaranteed to the top Fantasy Fishing player following every FLW Tour stop and the Forrest Wood Cup. Fans can even become a virtual pro by signing up for Player's Advantage, which grants access to exclusive insider information that could help them earn a record $1 million as the FLW Fantasy Fishing cumulative points winner. Those who visit FantasyFishing.com, sign up for Player's Advantage and register a team of FLW Tour anglers for Lake Toho by Feb. 27 will receive a complimentary $15 Wal-Mart gift card.

Two anglers likely to be on many FLW Fantasy Fishing teams for Lake Toho are Chevy pro Luke Clausen of Spokane, Wash., and BP pro JT Kenney of Port Charlotte, Fla. Clausen is one of only five anglers in history to have won both the Forrest Wood Cup and the Bassmaster Classic, which he won in 2006 on Lake Toho. Kenney won the Wal-Mart(TM) FLW(R) Series BP Eastern Division opener on Lake Okeechobee last month and pocketed $125,000. He also finished fourth the last time the FLW Tour visited Lake Toho (in 2005) and he is anxious to enter the record books with back to back wins in the Sunshine state.

"We're going to be fishing Toho about two weeks later than we did in 2005," said Kenney, who has earned more than $608,000 in FLW Outdoors events. "Of course, the weather and the wind direction will play a big part in how guys approach this event, but the fish should be in a pre-spawn mode for the tournament, and guys should experience a pretty good flipping bite."

Kenney said anglers will focus on the four northwestern lakes in the lower Kissimmee Chain -- Toho, Cypress, Hatchineha and Kissimmee.

"Lake Toho is made up of really clear water and just tons of hydrilla," Kenney said. "Cypress is known for having some pretty large fish in it. It used to have hydrilla in it, but it's pretty much bank vegetation now. One little bay in Hatchineha has some hydrilla in it, but for the most part it's all bank vegetation. Lake Kissimmee is the biggest lake on the chain and doesn't have the numbers of fish the other lakes do, but it probably has bigger fish."

Kenney said baits of choice during the event will be lipless crankbaits and large creature baits and jigs. He said the key to success will be finding the big bite.

Competitors should be able to travel from takeoff on the north end of Lake Toho to the south end of Lake Kissimmee in an hour and 15 minutes, allowing them to cover a lot of quality water -- more than 64,000 acres -- in a short amount of time, which, according to Kenny, will be necessary in the search for a big bite.

"The thing about Florida is, you can go out one day and catch two big ones and three 3-pounders to go with it, and you've got a 27-pound limit," Kenney said. "The next day you can go out and you'll catch 10 or 11 pounds. Very rarely will there be somebody who brings in 15 pounds a day. It will take right at 35 pounds the first two days to make the cut, and 35 pounds on the final two days to win it."

Anglers will take off at 7 each morning from Kissimmee Lakefront Park located at 101 Lake Shore Blvd. in Kissimmee. Thursday and Friday's weigh-ins will also be held at Kissimmee Lakefront Park beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday's weigh-ins will be held in Silver Spurs Arena at Osceola Heritage Park, located at 1875 Silver Spur Lane in Kissimmee, beginning at 4 p.m.

Prior to the weigh-ins Saturday and Sunday, FLW Outdoors(R) will host a free Family Fun Zone and outdoor show in the Exhibition Building at Osceola Heritage Park from noon to 6 p.m. each day. The Family Fun Zone offers fans a chance to meet their Fantasy Fishing team anglers face-to-face and review the latest products from Berkley, Lowrance, Ranger, Evinrude, Yamaha and other sponsors while children are treated to giveaways, fishing themed games and rides like the Ranger Boat simulator. Children 14 and under visiting the Family Fun Zone Sunday will also receive a free rod and reel combo while supplies last, and one lucky member of the audience will win a new Ranger boat during the final 4 p.m. weigh-in on Sunday, March 2. Admission is free and you must be present to win.

In FLW Tour competition, pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day, with pros supplying the boat, controlling boat movement and competing against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back deck against other co-anglers. The full field of 400 anglers competes in the two-day opening round for one of 10 slots in Saturday's competition based on their two-day accumulated weight. Weights are cleared for day three, and co-angler competition concludes following Saturday's weigh-in. The top 10 pros continue competition Sunday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from days three and four.

The total purse for the Lake Toho event is $1 million, including $10,000 through 50th place in the Pro Division.

Coverage of the tournament will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States as part of the "FLW Outdoors" television program airing March 30. "FLW Outdoors" is also broadcast in Canada on WFN (World Fishing Network) and to more than 429 million households in the United Kingdom, Europe, Russia, Australia, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East through a distribution agreement with Matchroom Sport, making it the most widely distributed fishing program in the world. The program airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time in most markets. Check local listings for times in your area.

The FLW Tour will award $9.5 million cash to the world's top bass anglers in 2008. Regular-season competition includes three $1 million qualifiers and three $1.5 million opens. Each event takes anglers a step closer to the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup presented by Castrol, which will be held Aug. 14-17 on Lake Murray in Columbia, S.C. The prestigious championship and outdoor show hosted by the Capital City Lake Murray County Regional Tourism Board will feature 77 pros, 77 co-anglers and bass fishing's largest cash award - a potential $1 million first-place prize for the winning pro.

FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2008 alone the organization is offering more than 90,000 anglers the chance to win over $40 million through 230 tournaments in 10 circuits targeting bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass. FLW Outdoors is also taking fishing mainstream with the largest cash awards in the history of fantasy sports, $7.3 million.

For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player's Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.