Forrest Wood Cup launches at Hall's Laurel Park

GAINESVILLE -- A day of hot-weather fishing got underway at sunrise Thursday for 78 anglers in the Forrest Wood Cup World Championship of bass fishing, which launched from the Laurel Park boat ramp in Hall County.

Tom Mann from Buford is one of those world-class anglers and said it was nice to have a major event in his own back yard.

"It's awful nice to get up from your own bed and just drive over here to the boat ramp," Mann said. "It's a big deal, it doesn't happen very often in your career. It's huge for me, I've been fishing here over 40 years so I know the waters and I hope to go out there and I hope my 'baby girl' is good to me one more time."

Mann said 'baby girl' is his nickname for Lake Lanier; Mann has been a professional angler for 26 years.

A weigh-in is set for each day of the four-day tournament at 5 p.m. at the Gwinnett Arena in Duluth, which is also the site of the FLW Outdoors Expo this weekend, beginning at noon Friday and continuing through Saturday and Sunday (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).

The Expo includes Ranger boat simulators, angler seminars, the opportunity to interact with professional anglers, activities and giveaways provided by sponsors, and fans can learn more about the sport of fishing. Hall County Parks and Leisure Services Director Greg Walker said he's been getting ready for the Cup for 18 months, and it is so big that part of it had to move to Gwinnett County.

"The Gwinnett Arena was bigger, we don't have a facility here in Hall County big enough to hold their trade show and their weigh-in," Walker said. "Governor Perdue announced this 'Go Fish' initiative here specifically at Lake Lanier to get the FLW to come to town."

Walker said the trade show and daily weigh-in was originally set for the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, but because of the logistics in transporting the fish FLW realized they could not do that and the Gwinnett Arena was closer. For FLW tournament Director Bill Taylor from Kentucky, it was a busy morning, getting all those bass boats and anglers launched promptly at 7 a.m.

"It's the biggest there is with the top anglers in the whole world participating," Taylor said. "Day One Launch is behind us and it went smoothly."

Taylor said FLW heavily scouted the Hall County site before making the final decision to hold its biggest annual event at Laurel Park.

"The main reason is that it's phenomenal for what we're trying to do," Taylor said. "It's got plenty of parking and plenty of room, its well kept and maintained, its ideal for fishing. This is about my sixth trip down, just for this event, I first came down 15 months ago and looked at everything and we decided this was what we wanted."

FLW Outdoors, is named after Forrest L. Wood, founder of Ranger Boats, and is the world's largest fishing tournament organization. FLW offers anglers the chance to compete for millions of dollars over the course of 189 tournaments this year. The angler who claims the cup Sunday also wins $500,000 plus a possible $100,000 Ranger Cup contingency bonus.