Bass Fishing League returns

As many as 320 anglers coming to Decatur in 2011
By Paul Huggins, Staff Writer, The Decatur Daily

The FLW Bass Fishing League will bring its regional championship and as many as 320 anglers to Decatur and Wheeler Lake in October 2011.

The Decatur-Morgan County Convention and Visitors Bureau said the event could have an economic impact of more than $400,000, based on figures from the previous time Decatur and Ingalls Harbor hosted the BFL tourney in 2008.

Bid fees and support services for the event will cost the visitors bureau $5,000.

“It’s a really good for what we get out of it and what we put into it,” said Tami Reist, visitors bureau president.

The event, one of six regional championships nationwide, will draw anglers from Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee. The top six boaters and co-anglers from the regional will move on the BFL All-American, considered the Super Bowl to the BFL angler.

The tournament will be Oct. 13-15.

FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world and offered anglers the chance to win more than $33 million through 231 tournaments in 2009.

Weekend angler
BFL’s competition circuit is devoted to the weekend angler and operates like a development league. Top BFL performers can move up to FLW Outdoors’s American Fishing Series (formerly known as the FLW Stren Series) or the top-tier FLW Tour.

FLW Outdoors will bring its American Fishing Series Invitational to Decatur on Nov. 4-6. It expects to draw about 200 anglers.