The continually expanding Lew's pro staff has added two more members – Bassmaster Elite Series veteran John Murray (top photo) and former FLW Tour competitor Michael Murphy.
"I was a part of the Lew's team many years ago when I was early in my western professional career," said Murray, a two-time U.S. Open winner and six-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier. "Lew's was leading the industry back then with its Speed Spools and Speed Sticks, and now here they are on top again with an all-new and highly impressive product line. My background is all about making long casts and fishing deep, and this new gear has brought a whole new level of performance to my game. I'm confident we're going to make a good team for a long time."
Murphy, a resident of South Carolina, has 5 seasons of FLW Tour competition on his résumé and fished the Bassmaster Southern and Northern Opens in 2012.
"I'm excited about this opportunity with Lew's because I know it's going to take my performance to a higher level," he said. "My self-proclaimed weakness is that I'm an impatient angler, often fishing faster than I should. Sometimes that has me trying too hard to make things happen instead of waiting for them to occur. Lew's has fast reels, but I know their BB1 option with 21 IPT (inches per turn) will make me slow down when I need to. My new Lew's have me really fired up about this 2013 tournament season."
Said Lew's owner Lynn Reeves: "I realize the speed by which our Team Lew's pro staff has grown over a short period of time makes it look like we're just wanting a bunch of pros, but that's not the case. Give our roster a little more thought and you'll likely begin to see what we're doing in assembling a group of anglers, seasoned and early in their careers, that bring a diverse set of product knowledge, geographical techniques and fishing styles that we believe will serve our future well for continued development of products that are 'lighter, faster and stronger,' which was the original vision of the late Lew Childre and remains this company's mission today."
