Wal-Mart may be known for its “always low prices,” but its professional saltwater fishing team is now known for its “always high finishes” in championship events.
During its first season sponsoring a pro saltwater team in 2002, Wal-Mart was able to capture the Southern Kingfish Association’s championship title. In 2003, Team Wal-Mart again took top honors in the SKA, America’s largest offshore tournament trail.
Team Wal-Mart comprises five boats, and last year it was the Fish Fever crew that earned the right to sing “We are the Champions” at the two-day tournament’s end. This year it was Wild Turkey that had something to gobble about at the conclusion of the championship, appropriately held the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Adding to the thrill of a repeat victory for Team Wal-Mart was a third-place championship finish courtesy of Koolau. The Koolau crew, captained by Conrad Lau, is based in Florida while Wild Turkey is captained by Rick Smith, also the overall Team Wal-Mart captain, and is based in Georgia.
The national championship held offshore from Biloxi, Miss., brought together 310 boats for stiff competition in fishing conditions that Smith, SKA’s 1996 Angler of the Year, described as “absolutely perfect.”
“It is tough competition,” Smith said. “(Team Wal-Mart’s top finishes) say we’ve got a good group of guys and girls out fishing.”
The key to Team Wal-Mart’s success in the Gulf of Mexico can be summed up with the famous phrase, “Go West, young man.” Lau said he had decided to head west on the first day of competition before the championship began because the fishing had been so outstanding off the coast of Louisiana during a Yamaha Pro Tour event held there less than a month prior. Plus, he figured “not everyone else is going to run 110 miles” one way to search for kingfish.
After investing two and a half hours travel time and 225 gallons of fuel in a run to the West Delta, the maneuver paid off for Koolau and Wild Turkey as their anglers began to pull in the king mackerel one after another. Lau said Wellcraft’s sleek hull design aided fuel economy and provided stability while “the dependability of the Evinrude direct injection gave us the confidence to run all the way to the West Delta” at a high speed. Smith added that the Evinrude direct-injection outboard motors the teams use are invaluable as they are specially designed with parts that can handle the stress of such engine-punishing trips.
“It’s been a long time coming in terms of being comfortable in the Gulf,” Smith said. “The Gulf doesn’t intimidate us anymore. This year we had the range.”
Using radio contact and teamwork to establish a fishing pattern near offshore oil rigs, Smith said the one-two punch of Wild Turkey and Koolau yielded a massive bounty. Wild Turkey landed a 581/2-pound king, the largest Smith says he’s ever caught.
“We got on some fish and just caught and caught,” he said.
Lau reported reeling in almost 40 kingfish on day one, many in the respectable 40- to 48-pound range, from which they culled a 531/2-pounder to take back to the scales.
“It was a kingfisherman’s dream,” Lau said. “You could barely count to 10 and you’d have a fish on your line.”
But landing lunkers on day one of a two-day tournament, one in which intrateam communications is allowed, is not even half the battle. After bringing in the big one at 10 a.m., Smith said his crew decided to keep jigging for baitfish in various locations to “create a diversion” that might throw off other anglers wondering where they had plucked the ocean gem.
“You’ve got to create a little bit of a diversion … otherwise they’ll see where you’re fishing and beat you to the hole the next day,” Smith said.
So the entire five-boat Wal-Mart fleet headed west on day two, and sure enough, they had company.
“Understandably, we had a lot of traffic … about 100 boats around us the next day,” Smith said.
But the tight quarters didn’t deter Wild Turkey or Koolau from following through. Wild Turkey culled a 551/2-pounder from a plethora of king mackerel to register an aggregate of 114.04 pounds, enough to win the championship and set an SKA record for two-day tournaments.
“We were releasing so many fish that we wouldn’t even get excited when a 48- or 50-pound fish would swim by the boat on a line,” Smith said, but he knew the right king when it surfaced. “I saw the shoulders on that one, and I said, `We’ve got to get him into the boat.'”
Koolau hauled in plenty of fish as well and ultimately weighed in a nearly 54-pound king for a two-day total of 107.39 pounds, good for third place.
“It feels good,” Lau said of the team’s strong showing. “I think it’s a great finish to a slow-starting season for Team Wal-Mart.”
In addition to Wal-Mart, Wellcraft and Evinrude, both Smith and Lau agreed that the team’s other sponsors – Spro swivels, Stren fishing line and Loadmaster trailers – were instrumental in paving the road to success in 2003.
Perhaps the greatest contributor to Team Wal-Mart’s success this season is the team itself. Each crew tries to work together to ensure that at least one Wal-Mart boat has a shot at winning. Smith said they even rented satellite phones for the championship to make certain their communications would stay within the Wal-Mart family.
“We try to stay focused,” he said. “We try to stay loyal to each other … to be everybody’s ears and eyes. To have ended the season this way – it’s a great feeling.”