Team Kingscape wins Kingfish Series event in Galveston
Crew nets back-to-back wins in Gulf Division
GALVESTON, Texas. – Team Kingscape, headed by Todd King of Gulf Breeze, Fla., caught a kingfish weighing 47 pounds, 15 ounces Saturday to win the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series Upper Gulf Division event in Galveston, Texas, and $12,000 cash.
King, along with teammates Summer King, Chris Schulte and Trey Davis, were slow-trolling live hardtails on downriggers to catch their tournament winning kingfish to win back-to-back Upper Gulf Division events.
“I could get used to this,” King said. “To win back-to-back events is awesome.
“The weather was great this morning and we decided to make a long run. We knew we had limited fishing time but decided to go anyway. We knew that this area we were fishing had great potential for catching big fish. We fished it until about an hour before when we had to start our run back when the big one hit. I actually had the rod in my hand when the fish skyrocketed and started pulling drag.”
King also added that they had found this spot on an internet Web site called Realtime-navigator.com. The site told them of the noteworthy temperature break near where the team was fishing and ended up holding the tournament winning kingfish as well.
Rounding out the top five teams were Team My Dinghy, captained by James Hosman of Pensacola, Fla. (45 pounds, 7 ounces, $3,240); Team Bustin’ Loose, captained by Tre McCrummen of Pearland, Texas (44 pounds, 15 ounces, $2,160); Team Intense, captained by Neal Foster of Mobile, Ala. (42 pounds, 1 ounce, $2,497); and Team Buck Wild, captained by Quint Higdon of Pensacola, Fla. (41 pounds, 8 ounces, $1,890).
The award for highest-finishing woman went to Summer King of Gulf Breeze, Fla., who placed first with a 47-pound, 15-ounce kingfish as a member of Team Kingscape.
The award for the highest-finishing angler 16 years of age and under was Dylan McCrummen of Pearland, Texas, who placed third with a king weighing 44 pounds, 15 ounces as a member of Team “Bustin’ Loose.”
FLW Kingfish Series qualifying tournaments are one-day events. Each team is allowed to weigh in one kingfish, and the winning team is determined by the heaviest fish.
The FLW Kingfish Series consists of five divisions – East Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina-Georgia, Gulf and Upper Gulf. Each division is comprised of three events with a $100,000 purse for each event. The top three teams from each tournament and the top 16 teams (who are not already qualified) from each division after all qualifiers are complete will advance to the three-day, $275,000 no-entry-fee Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series Championship in Orange Beach, Ala., Oct. 4-6, which will be featured in a one-hour episode of “FLW Outdoors” broadcast to 80 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) households in the United States and more than 429 million households in Europe, Asia and Africa. The points champion from each division will also advance directly to the $500,000 no-entry-fee Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship in Biloxi, Miss., Nov. 2-4, where they will compete against top FLW Kingfish Tour teams for a top award of $150,000.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail presented by Abu Garcia, Ranger Owners Tournament Championship Series, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses of nearly $43 million through 241 events in 2007.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Walmart.com.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, call (270) 252-1000.