Ardent Assembles All-Star Squad for 2009

Ardent Assembles All-Star Squad for 2009
Team Ardent members include two Bassmaster Classic champions.

Macon, MO (May 2009) – Ardent, the industry’s only manufacturer of fishing reels and accessories that are Made in the USA, recently unveiled the members of Team Ardent for 2009. The members include a virtual who’s who in the professional fishing industry, including pros in the Bass Elite Series, FLW Tour, WBT Tour and PAA members. Combined, the 2009 Team Ardent team has two Bassmaster Classic Tournament wins, 39 tournament first-place finishes, 227 Top 10 finishes and hosts of six prominent television shows.

“Ardent now has more than 185 anglers on its Pro Staff and there is no greater compliment a manufacturer can receive than to have anglers of this caliber use its reels,” said Mike Brooks, President and CEO of Ardent. “These anglers choose Ardent because of its performance on the water. None of these anglers are paid by Ardent to use our reels.”

Topping the list of Ardent’s Pro Staff program are Bassmaster Classic Champions Denny Brauer and Alton Jones, as well Pete Ponds, Jami Fralick, James Niggemeyer, Fred Roumbais, Mark Tyler, Steve Kennedy, Terry Butcher, Kevin Short, Brent Chapman and Zell Rowland.

“Team Ardent has some of the strongest competitors on the Elite Tour this year,” Brooks said. “These anglers, combined with the performance of Ardent reels, may give us an opportunity to have a Team Ardent member win the Angler of the Year award.”

Team Ardent also includes five notable anglers from the FLW Tour, including Kevin Lasyone, Mike Ellenstein – who also hosts the television program Tri-State Fishing – Wil Jefferies, Mike Reynolds and Kris Anderson.

Other members of Team Ardent include six fishing television show hosts: Larry Woodward and Bob Richardson of Outdoors in the Heartland, Aaron Martin of Bass Edge, Bob Mehsikomer of Simply Fishing, Charlie Moore of Charlie Moore TV and Tony Sellars of Angler’s for Christ; four exclusive PAA Members: Blake Shifflett,
Jimmy Mason, Lance Vick and Kurt Dove; and four WBT fisherwomen: Dianna Clark, Betty Stahl, Angie Everitt and Rose Ellis.

In addition to these professional tour Team Ardent members, there are 130 amateur anglers who have chosen to exclusively utilize Ardent reels in their amateur weekend series events due to their performance. The total number of anglers using Ardent’s reels is an incredible testament to this young company’s product line.


About Ardent

With headquarters in Macon, Mo., Ardent designs and manufactures fishing reels and fishing reel accessories that are Made in the USA. Ardent was founded on the principle of creating high-performance fishing reels that can endure the test of time. In addition, every Ardent reel is hand-assembled and performance-tested prior to shipment and is backed by the industry best three-year warranty. For more information, please visit www.ardentoutdoors.com.

Canadian Contact:
James Turner
306-757-9905
james@innovativeoutdoorsman.com

Ardent Contact:
David Gray
660-395-9200 x 502
dgray@ardentoutdoors.com

Media Contact:
Jason Michael
314-255-2340 x 103
jmichael@blacktwigllc.com