MINNEAPOLIS (Dec. 7, 2010) - EverStart Batteries announced a sponsorship with FLW Outdoors, making it the official automotive and marine battery of the tournament-fishing organization. Effective immediately, EverStart will assume title sponsorship of the FLW American Fishing Series, which recently published increased paybacks and schedule of lakes for 2011. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
In addition to their title sponsorship, EverStart will support a two-member professional angling team that will compete on the 2011 FLW Tour. Team EverStart will include FLW Tour pros Ron Shuffield and Randall Tharp.
Trisha Blake, president of FLW Outdoors Marketing Division, stated. "EverStart Batteries has been the leader in this category for years and thus makes their sponsorship a natural fit. We're proud to once again call the American Fishing Series the EverStart Series."
The 2011 EverStart Series consists of five divisions - Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division will consist of four qualifying tournaments with the season culminating with a no-entry-fee championship.
Shuffield enters his sixth season fishing the FLW Tour and has amassed more than $1.4 million in career earnings. He finished fourth in the Angler of the Year race in 2010 following up a strong 2009 season where he finished sixth in Angler of the Year points.
With multiple tournament wins on Lake Guntersville, Tharp is known as one of the best grass fishermen in the sport. In 2010, he qualified for his first Forrest Wood Cup - finishing 19th on Lake Lanier. One month later at the FLW Series finale on Lake Chickamauga, Tharp took ninth and finished seventh in the Angler of the Year race, punching his 2011 Forrest Wood Cup berth early.