Fishing League Set for Opener on Lake Murray

WHAT: The 2017 T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament season will open Saturday, Feb. 11, for South Carolina Division anglers with an event on Lake Murray. Up to 400 boaters and co-anglers will be competing for top awards of up to $8,000 and $3,000 respectively in the one-day tournament.

WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017

South Carolina Division

Lake Murray

Dreher Island State Park

3677 State Park Road

Prosperity, S.C.

Hosted by Capital City Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism

NOTES: Lake Murray is expected to fish well for this South Carolina Division opener. Past BFL champions on Lake Murray this time of year caught their winning limits using crawdad-colored baits along shallow docks and banks. Football-head jigs near deep brush piles could also produce some heavy catches. Other baits likely to be favored by competitors include crankbaits, jigs and shaky-head rigs. The winner of this tournament is expected to bring a five-bass limit nearing 25 pounds to the scale.

The 2017 BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 tournaments throughout the season, five qualifying events in each division. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five winners of the qualifying events, will advance to one of six regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. Top performers in the BFL can move up to the Costa FLW Series or even the FLW Tour.

For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the BFL on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter atTwitter.com/FLWFishing.

About FLW

FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2017 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 274 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. For more information visit FLWFishing.com and follow FLW at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat: @FLWFishing.