TIERRA VERDE, Fla. – Team Chevy, headed by Captain Larry Fowler of Little River, S.C., caught a kingfish weighing 37 pounds, 8 ounces to win the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series West Florida Division event in Tierra Verde, Fla., and $30,000 cash.
The captain, along with teammates Earl Blake of Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., and Ty Cobb of Carolina Beach, N.C., caught the winning king in 50 feet of water on the south side of the Egmont Ship Channel. The kingfish hit an 18-inch ribbonfish rigged with a ¼-ounce green jighead and No. 4 treble hooks on the medium downrigger line set at 23 feet.
Windy conditions forced teams to fish in rough seas, but this impediment actually worked to Fowler’s favor. “The reason we fished in the channel was because of the weather. If it hadn’t been blowing like it was, I had already made up my mind that we were going to run south to Boca Grande Pass.”
Team Chevy caught a smaller kingfish around 9:30 a.m. The anglers had just repositioned to set out another bait spread when the winning fish displayed an impatient mood. “We got in some clean water and we were dropping the downrigger. By the time we got it stopped, (the fish) was on it and gone. He hit the bait on the way down.”
With seas swelling to 8 feet, Fowler and crew docked their boat at 1 p.m. and waited two hours until the weigh-ins opened. “We came in early because we already had the fish. There was no sense staying out there and getting kicked around.”
Rounding out the top five teams were Team Sudden Impact captained by Harold Conger of Englewood, Fla. (29 pounds, 5 ounces, $3,121); Team Fish Attack captained by Ranald Stewart of Tampa, Fla. (28 pounds, 12 ounces, $2,080); Team Wise Guys captained by Richard Fabrizi of St. Petersburg, Fla. (27 pounds, 4 ounces, $1,560); Team Hydra-Sports captained by Alex Leva of Tampa, Fla. (24 pounds, 10 ounces, $2,600).
FLW Kingfish Series qualifying tournaments are one-day events. The field competes Saturday, and the winning team is determined based on the heaviest kingfish. The next FLW Kingfish Series event will be held May 20 in Fernandina Beach, Fla.
The FLW Kingfish Series consists of five divisions – East Florida and West Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina-Georgia and Gulf Coast. Each division is comprised of three events with a $100,000 purse for each event. The top 100 teams – 20 from each division after three qualifying events – will qualify for the three-day, no-entry-fee $300,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series Championship to be held in Orange Beach, Ala., Oct. 26-28. The championship winner will take home as much as $75,000.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series, as well as the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $36.9 million through 241 events in 2006.
For more information on FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.
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 world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.