Four anglers are recovering today after a boating accident on Thursday at the Costa FLW Series at Grand Lake sent three of them to the hospital.
Tournament competitors Ross Wright of McQueeny, Texas, and Matt Garner of Seminole, Oklahoma were the two boaters involved in the incident, along with co-anglers Johnny Babb of Holdenville, Oklahoma, and Jimmy Green of Grove, Oklahoma. Additional details about the accident will be released after an accident report is received by the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA).
The GRDA police pulled the boats to shore to transport the injured anglers to the hospital. Two of the men were transported to Tulsa area hospitals, and one was transported to a hospital in Miami, Oklahoma. No update on the condition of the injured anglers is yet available.
Additional details will be forthcoming as an update on the conditions of the anglers involved and the official accident report is received.
Friday, Day Two of the Costa FLW Series event on Grand Lake, has been canceled due to severe thunderstorms and lightning.
The tournament will resume Saturday with the full field fishing and the pro and co-angler winners will be determined by the cumulative weight of two days of competition instead of three.
Anglers will take off Saturday from Wolf Creek Park, located at 963 N. 16th St. in Grove at 6:30 a.m. CDT. Saturday’s final weigh-in, originally scheduled to be held at Walmart, will now be held at Wolf Creek Park and will begin at 2:30 p.m. Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public. The event is hosted by the City of Grove.
In Costa FLW Series regular-season competition, payouts are based on the number of participants competing in the event. At Grand Lake, pros will fish for as much as $40,000 and a Ranger Z518C boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard if Ranger Cup qualified. Co-anglers will cast for a Ranger Z175 boat with a 90-horsepower Evinrude outboard and an additional $5,000 if Ranger Cup qualified.
The Costa FLW Series consists of five U.S. divisions – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments with competitors vying for valuable points that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the Costa FLW Series Championship. The 2017 Costa FLW Series Championship is being held Nov. 2-4 on Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tennessee.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com
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.
By: Brian Johnson, FLW
