FLW announced today that the 2017 T-H Marine BFL Wild Card tournament will take place on Kentucky and Barkley lakes, Nov. 10-11. The previously reported date of Oct. 27-28 was changed due to a scheduling conflict. The event will launch from the Kentucky Dam Marina, located at 466 Marina Drive in Gilbertsville, Kentucky.
In order to be eligible to fish the no-entry-fee BFL Wild Card tournament, anglers must have entered all five events within a BFL division during the 2017 season and fished at least two of them. In addition, anglers who have already qualified for a BFL regional are ineligible.
During the BFL Wild Card tournament, the full field competes both days, with winners determined by the heaviest two-day catch. The top six boaters and top six co-anglers will advance to the 2018 T-H Marine BFL All-American, held on Cross Lake in Shreveport, Louisiana, May 31-June 2, hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier City Sports Commission and the Red River Waterway Commission.
An optional pot is available to anglers who elect to participate at the BFL Wild Card tournament. Entry fees for the optional pot will be $230 for boaters and $115 for co-anglers, with the top 20 percent of anglers who elect to participate in the optional pot receiving checks. There will be no official practice period or off-limits period prior to the pretournament meeting for the Wild Card. No contestant may be on tournament waters for the purpose of locating bass or potential fishing waters after the start of the pretournament meeting except during tournament hours.
Entry for the BFL Wild Card is now open and runs through Thursday, November 9, 2017, at 6 p.m. Central time. You may enter by phone on or before Wednesday, November 8, at 270.252.1000. Entries on November 9 will be taken onsite at the pretournament meeting at the Kentucky Dam Marina. The 2017 T-H Marine BFL Wild Card tournament is being hosted by the Kentucky Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau.
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.
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 2016 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 235 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: Joe Opager, Director of Public Relations
