BASSMASTER Marty Stone, Earns $100,000 For Four Days Of Fishing.

DECATUR, Ala.--(BW SportsWire)--Mar. 6, 1999--

PLACE NAME CITY STATE FISH/DEAD LBS-OZ PTS WINNINGS

001 Marty Stone Kernersville NC 15/0 41-06 150 $100,000 002 Alton Jones Waco TX 15/0 35-04 149 $38,000 003 Randy DearmanOnalaska TX 15/0 32-05 148 $28,000 004 Lendell Martin, Jr. Nacogdoches TX 14/0 30-15 147 $15,000 005 Randy Howell Trussville AL 15/0 30-07 146 $15,000 006 Mike Wurm Hot Springs AR 15/0 29-02 145 $11,000 007 Tom Biffle Wagoner OK 15/0 28-13 144 $10,000 008 Jerry Guest Royston GA 13/0 26-04 143 $8,000 009 Mike Terry Obion TN 15/0 25-04 142 $7,000 010 Jim Nolan Flippin AR 13/0 23-02 141 $6,500

Marty Stone, of Kernersville, N.C., sold his house recently, and hasn't had time to buy a new one. Today, he earned a good down payment. Stone claimed the $100,000 title in the $409,450 KMART BASSMASTER Top 150 pro-am tournament on Wheeler Lake out of Decatur, Ala.

The March 3-6 event was one of the 19 qualifying tournaments for the 29th annual BASS Masters Classic world championship tournament set for New Orleans July 29-31, where free daily weigh-ins will be in the Super Dome.

Stone caught five bass today weighing 8 pounds, 9 ounces for a tournament total of 15 weighing 41-6. He fished a 1/4-ounce Rattling Spot by Cotton Cordell in blue and chrome and black and chrome, through spots in grass in 2- to 3-feet of water. The key, he said was to use a very, very slow retrieve.

"I was in what they call Decatur Flats," he told the weigh-in crowd. The area is special, he said, because "It's able to sustain a good population of fish. "To combat cold water, you need either current or grass, and we had both in there."

The $100,000 purse in the pro division includes $74,000 cash, and a fully rigged Ranger bass boat with a Mercury Outboard, ACDelco Voyager marine batteries, Humminbird electronics, and a MotorGuide Trolling Motor. Second place pays $13,000 cash and a fully rigged Ranger.

POINTS:

Even though he missed the cut to the top 10 here by one ounce, Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., leads the BASS Masters Classic and B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year points standings with a season total of 561 points. The top 25 pros on this circuit at the end of the seven-tournament season in May qualify to compete for the world title at the BASS Masters Classic in New Orleans.

The points leader becomes the 1999 B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year -- one of the two most prestigious titles in the sport. Anglers earn points based on their rank of finish in each KMART BASSMASTER Top 150 event. First place here earns 150 points; second place earns 149; third, 148, etc. Two events remain on the Top 150 circuit.

Upcoming stops on the $6 million BASSMASTER Tournament Trail: Lake Powell out of Page, Ariz., March 18-20, for the third of four BASSMASTER Western Invitationals; Table Rock Lake out of Kimberling City, Mo., March 25-27 for the third of four BASSMASTER Central Invitationals; Lake Mead out of Las Vegas, Nev., April 7-10 for the sixth of seven KMART BASSMASTER Top 150 tournaments.

NATIONAL SPONSORS: KMART, Ranger Boats, RangerTrail Trailers, Mercury Outboards, Chevrolet Trucks, ACDelco Voyager Batteries, Humminbird/Zercom, JERZEES American ActiveWear, Wrangler Rugged Wear, Flowmaster Exhaust Systems, Plano Tackle Systems, MotorGuide Trolling Motors, and Pennzoil. REGIONAL SPONSOR: the Decatur/Morgan County Convention & Visitors Bureau; the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce.