The reel deal

Team Chevy/Miss Micki 2 scores first Kingfish Tour win in Venice

VENICE, La. – They faced a field of competitors who had already scaled the mountain, but when they dropped a 47-pound, 5-ounce kingfish on the scale, Team Chevy/Miss Micki 2 earned their much-awaited entry into the fraternity of Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour winners at Venice Marina.

Comprising Captain Ricky Rowland, his wife, Shannon, and Bill McLamb, the Raleigh, N.C. team weighed second on day one with a 51-15 and established a lead that would hold through two days of qualifying. The winners sat out day two in preparation for the final round, but entered day three determined to claim the prize that Rowland said has eluded them too many times.

“We’ve worked really hard to get a win, and this is special,” he said.

Ending with a 99-pound, 4-ounce total, Rowland credited Team BP, captained by Mike Edwards of Jacksonville, N.C., for pointing them toward a particularly productive drilling rig in the West Delta. Sitting in 170 feet, the structure also yielded their day-one fish.

The team started fishing at a drilling rig just 15 miles from the delta where they put a couple of lines out while they were catching live blue runners. An early strike felt like a big fish, but it turned out to be a smaller king that was foul-hooked.

With adrenalin pumping from that early excitement, Team Chevy/Miss Micki 2 ran 55 miles offshore and returned to the rig that produced their day-one big fish. Fishing around bait school’s on the rig’s perimeter, the team slow-trolled live blue runners on flat lines and a dead ribbonfish on their downrigger. At 11:15 a.m., their 47-pounder ate one of the live baits.

Shannon Rowland fought the fish for about 10 minutes and McLamb gaffed it. McLamb said he always tries to keep the gaff clear of the line and aim for the center of mass. “I usually aim for the fattest part of the fish. I want the biggest target I can get.”

M&M’s settles for second

North Carolina-based Team M&M’s, captained by Randy Griffin, caught the heaviest kingfish in the final round – a 47-15. Adding to the 44-8 that put them in third place on day two, the final catch yielded a second place total of 92 pounds, 7 ounces.

Notably, when Team M&M’s won the Kingfish Tour’s Fort Pierce, Fla., event in 2007, they edged out none other than Miss Micki 2. As his team watched the eventual Venice winners lay their big king on the scale, Griffin noted the uncanny reversal of roles. “This is just how it was (in 2007), only we were in their place. I know they got us, but first or second – it’s all good.”

Later, Griffin expounded on that thought: “Anyone who’s able to qualify for the top-five is a good team. Whether you come in first and win the whole thing or you end up fifth, it still takes a very competent team to get to the top-five and fish on the third day.”

Griffin’s formula for success: “You get to where you’re going, whether it’s away from home or at your home port; just fish and fish and fish some more. You get out of it what you put into it.”

Currently, the top-ranked professional kingfish team with over $302,000 in FLW earnings, Team M&M’s caught their final-round fish on a rig about 60 miles west in about 130 feet of water. Team member Jack Wood of Wake Forest, N.C., described the structure as one his team has fished successfully in previous tournaments.

“We went around (the rig) one time and didn’t get a bite, then we went around it again and caught a fish in the mid-30s,” Wood recalled. “We caught a couple more fish in the 20s, and we had a couple of barracudas and sharks. We went around the rig one more time and we got that 47-15.”

Fish Fever/Strike Zone Melbourne takes third

Father-son team Ed and Shawn Mecchella of Fish Fever/Strike Zone Melbourne improved from 30th to fifth on day two with their 43-7. They paired their qualifying fish with a 36-5 on day three and finished third at 79-12.

The Mecchellas ran back to the spot that they fished on day two: a drilling rig about 65 miles west. Their biggest fish ate a live blue runner around 11 a.m.

“The spot changed a little bit – the water had changed color, and the bait had moved out,” Shawn Mecchella said. “The current was going crazy, and the wind switched out of the south, so we switched to plan B, which was to come back east and hit about every rig between that spot and (Red Pass).”

Folgers slips to fourth

Team Folgers’ David Kingery of Melbourne, Fla., along with Kyle Walsh and Randy Truitt, both of West Melbourne, Fla., made a big jump from 22nd to second with the biggest fish of day two – a 45-11. However, they could only find a 33-3 in the final round and ended in fourth place with 78-14.

Running about 25 miles west, they returned to their big-fish spot from day two, but storms and later floating grass stymied the plan. The team encountered steady action at a deeper spot, but nothing big enough for the win. Eventually, they worked their way back east and caught several more fish along the way.

Kingery said blue runners were the hot bait for what amounted to a bunch of cookie-cutter kings. “All the fish we caught were identical – we couldn’t even tell the difference on the boat. We had to weigh them on the boat to tell the difference.”

My Three Sons borrows boat, places fifth

My Three Sons, captained by Terry Grantham of Florence, S.C., placed second on day one with a 43-pound, 9-ounce king, but boat problems limited their fishing time on day two, and they did not weigh a fish. Grantham fished the final round in a boat borrowed from a fellow competitor and weighed a 35-pounder that gave his team a 78-9 total.

The team fished about 50 miles west in 130 feet. Their biggest fish on day three hit a live blue runner at 1:30 p.m.