EDITOR’ S NOTE
A COVER NOD TO FLW’ S FUTURE
ATour pro, the All-American champ, one of the best sticks in all of Texas, two college championship contenders and a couple of high school standouts all gather at a boat ramp at dawn.
It’ s not the start of a weird joke. It’ s the scene of an early morning photo shoot the day before the start of the Costa FLW Series Championship at Table Rock Lake that produced this issue’ s special cover. For the record, it’ s the largest group of anglers ever assembled on the cover of FLW Bass Fishing and the first cover to feature a high school angler – in this case, two of them.
But this cover represents an even greater milestone than a cool piece of art. FLW’ s efforts are at an all-time high to provide tournament circuits for everyone and a way for beginner anglers to learn skills and advance up the ranks. The anglers shown symbolize that successful system, as all of FLW’ s tournament circuits are represented here not just by anglers, but by highly skilled, experienced tournament fishermen. Everyone here has accomplished something significant on the water. They all have sponsors, either personally or through a club or school. And they’ re all highly competitive at their respective levels.
They are, from left to right: brothers Tate( 16) and Eli( 18) Brumnett of Wagoner, Okla., winners of the 2016 Student Angler Federation High School Fishing FLW / TBF Open at Grand Lake; 2016 T-H Marine Bass Fishing League All- American champ Jeremy Lawyer of Sarcoxie, Mo.; FLW Tour pro Greg Bohannan of Rogers, Ark.; Costa FLW Series pro Russell Cecil of Willis, Texas; and Taylor Schmitt and Curtis Lilly, who make up one of five McKendree University teams to qualify for the 2017 FLW College Fishing National Championship. What a crew, huh? FLW truly is the tournament organization of inclusion. Yeah, I’ m tooting the company horn a little bit, but I’ m proud to do it. I’ m particularly proud of the“ downward growth” trend that’ s led to the development of more opportunities for young anglers recently.
Today there are more than 700 colleges and universities participating in FLW College Fishing. FLW and The Bass Federation are rolling out a greatly expanded High School Fishing program this season that’ ll include 76 tournaments( see more on page 10), and projections are for more than 20,000 students to participate in 2017. New programs are even in the works for middle school and elementary fishing programs, as well as a mentoring project that’ ll pair high school kids who hope to compete at the next level with current college anglers. The nonprofit FLW Foundation is also expanding its youth outreach and fishing programs at more tournaments around the country.
FLW is growing, and in this editor’ s opinion, it’ s growing in the right direction.
Curtis Niedermier, Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO BY D. W. REED II
Publisher Irwin L. Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief Curtis Niedermier
Production Manager / Graphic Designer Michelle Dowling
Senior Editor Kyle Wood
Associate Editor Jody White
Editor Emeritus Colin Moore
Field Editors Rob Newell & Matt Williams
Contributors Joe Balog, Tyler Brinks, David A. Brown, Brian Cope, Bryan Hendricks, Dan Johnson, TJ Maglio, Sean Ostruszka, Dan O’ Sullivan Marc Rogers, Richard Simms, Paul Strege
Editorial Intern Dominick Schenewerk
Graphic Designer D. W. Reed II
Graphic Designer / Illustrator Matt Pace
Director of Advertising Al Chapman | 270.252.1628
Senior Web Content Manager Jesse Schultz
Social Media and Communications Specialist Chris Burgan
Letters to the Editor FLW Bass Fishing 30 Gamble Lane, Benton, KY 42025 flwfishing @ flwfishing. com
Chairman & CEO Irwin L. Jacobs
President of FLW Marketing Division Trish Blake
President of FLW Operations Division Kathy Fennel
Chief Financial Officer Dave Mahler
Vice President, Controller Tommy Boaz
Vice President of Marketing Patterson Leeth
Vice President of Operations Dave Washburn
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FLWFISHING. COM I JANUARY 2017