MAYPORT, Fla. – With uncertain conditions on the horizon for day two, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour competitors took off on day one of the season’s third event going for broke, as they are none too sure they’ll have a second day to compete.
Though the area will likely see a thunderstorm or two today, the conditions for takeoff were nevertheless brilliant – though humid – with a blazing sunshine and blue skies. No matter the forecast for the final day, Capt. Shane Hollar of Team Real Culture sees no need for a second day anyway.
“I wish we weren’t (fishing tomorrow),” Hollar said. “One day is all we need.”
One day may be all they get thanks to the incoming storms preceding Hurricane Dennis, and Hollar’s team members report the bite is a bit slow. “It’s going to be a little off,” said one angler who goes by the name Big Chief.
As for why that is, Big Chief offers a simple explanation – “They’re not here.”
In other words, the Jacksonville side of the Atlantic probably won’t relinquish the kind of mammoth kings seen at the last kingfish event in Venice, La. “We were catching then,” Big Chief said. “We’re hope-fishing now. We’re fishing, but not catching.”
“We got spoiled at the last tournament,” Real Culture member Marc Bandy said. “That’s fishing.”
One big king is all it takes, though, to claim the tournament’s top prize, worth a guaranteed $40,000 plus an additional $60,000 if Genmar and Yamaha contingencies are met. The tournament winner is determined by the heaviest fish weighed in at the tournament. Scales open today at 3 p.m. for the day-one weigh-in.
Friday’s conditions:
Sunrise: 6:30 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 80 degrees
Expected high temperature: 91 degrees
Wind: SE at 12 mph
Maximum humidity: 73 percent
Day’s outlook: scattered clouds with isolated thunderstorms