SOUTHPORT, N.C. – The final 2005 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour qualifier slated to begin Friday in Southport has been rescheduled due to Hurricane Ophelia off the North Carolina coast. The event presented by Tyson has been moved to Morehead City, N.C., and will be held Oct. 10-11 in advance of the $500,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship, which will be held in Morehead City Oct. 13-15.
“The safety of our anglers is always foremost in our thoughts,” said FLW Outdoors President and CEO Charlie Evans. “Therefore, with the threat posed by Hurricane Ophelia, we will reschedule the final qualifying tournament of the 2005 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour season. We are pleased that the rescheduled tournament will still be held in advance of the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship so that every team has a final shot at qualifying.”
Late last month FLW Outdoors officials announced that the FLW Kingfish Tour Championship would be relocated to Morehead City due to the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast. The championship was originally scheduled to visit D’Iberville, Miss.
Daily 6 a.m. takeoffs for the final qualifier will be held at Sea Water Marina located at 400 Atlantic Beach Causeway in Atlantic Beach, N.C. Scales will open at 3 p.m. daily with official check-in at the marina following at 5 p.m.
Daily 6 a.m. takeoffs for the first two days of the championship will also be held at Sea Water Marina. Scales will open at 3 p.m. with official check-in at the marina following at 5 p.m. the first two days. The final championship weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart located at 300 Highway 24 in Morehead City beginning at 5 p.m.
The $1.7 million FLW Kingfish Tour is the most lucrative kingfish tournament trail in the world. Competitors fish for a top award of as much as $100,000 in every qualifying tournament and as much as $150,000 in the no-entry-fee championship. Teams may weigh one kingfish per day, and the winner of each qualifying tournament is determined by the heaviest fish of the event. In the championship, the winner is determined by the heaviest kingfish from the opening two days plus the heaviest fish from the final day.
Every team that receives weight credit in a tournament earns points that determine year-end standings. Two hundred points are awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 points for third, and so on. The top 50 teams following the final qualifier in Morehead City will advance to the championship starting later in the week. Once in the championship, the entire field will compete for two days to qualify for the final round of 10 teams.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and seven other national tournament circuits offering a combined purse of $30 million through 214 events in 2005. The 27-year-old organization is the purveyor of America’s largest and most prestigious fishing tournaments, including the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1997 and today is the title sponsor of all FLW Outdoors events. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com. For more information on FLW Outdoors, browse FLWOutdoors.com.