The FLW Outdoors tour, one of the nation’s leading bass fishing tournament series, will kick off the New Year with an event on Lake Okeechobee, Jan. 27-30.

Lake Okeechobee, Florida’s most famous bass fishing destination, has long been the site of big dollar local and national fishing tournaments. The lake, nicknamed the “Big O,” is known for its large quantity of trophy-sized bass.

At each major FLW tournament, teams of 150 professionals and 150 amateur co-anglers fish together on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with the top five pros advancing to Saturday finals. The total weight from the first three days determines the winning co-angler on Friday, and the total weight from all four days combined determines the winning pro Saturday.

The anglers compete for prize money totally $50,000 in the pro division and $10,000 in the co-angler division. At the end of the season, the top 10 pros and top 10 co-anglers at qualify for the season-ending Forrest Wood Cup.

FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the founder of Ranger Boats, is one of the largest fishing tournament organizations in the world. To learn more about the organization’s Florida tournaments, click here.