BEAUFORT, S.C. (August 10, 2006) – Team Hard Way, captained by Todd Korker of Jupiter, Fla. caught a kingfish weighing 44 pounds, 15 ounces to lead day one of the $330,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour event presented by Yamaha in Beaufort, where teams are competing for a top award of as much as $100,000 cash.
Fishing a 33-foot Hydra-Sports Vector center console with triple Yamaha outboards, Korker was joined by Marty Koehler and Jeshua Koehler, both of Hopewell Junction, NY, and Josh Denton of Melbourne, Fla. The team found the top kingfish in about 50 feet of water 27 miles northeast of Port Royal Inlet.
“We shot to a spot where we had seen kingfish before the tournament and they weren’t there,” Korker said. “So we just went and found the bait pods, fished the bait and that’s where we caught the kingfish.”
Korker said his team had captured a variety of live baitfish in hopes that they would be prepared for whatever the day presented. Their big fish ate a 2-pound Spanish mackerel in the prop wash around 10:20 a.m. Denton handled the rod and Korker gaffed the kingfish after a 30-minute fight.
Korker said that paying attention to what was happening in the water led them to the right bait decision. “The strategy is to match the hatch. You go to the bait pods and see what the kingfish are feeding on and then you feed them what they’re eating. They were feeding on Spanish mackerel, so that’s what we fed them.”
Rounding out the top five teams are Team Salty Dog captained by Jeff Osborne of St. Augustine, Fla. (38 pounds, 3 ounces); Team Cat Daddy captained by Danny Mathis of Gonzalez, La. (36 pounds, 8 ounces); Team Wild Ride captained by Randy Griffin Jr. of Hampstead, N.C. (34 pounds, 11 ounces); Team Kellogg’s captained by Bryan Edwards of Little River, S.C. (33 pounds, 7 ounces).
Teams caught 74 kingfish Thursday weighing 1,580 pounds 9 ounces.
FLW Kingfish Tour qualifying tournaments are three-day events. The entire field competes Thursday and Friday and the top five teams compete Saturday. The winning team is determined based on the heaviest kingfish from Thursday or Friday plus the heaviest kingfish from Saturday. Boats will launch from Beaufort’s Downtown Marina Friday and Saturday at 6:30 a.m. Friday’s weigh-in will be held at Downtown Marina beginning at 4 p.m., and the final weigh-in will be held at the Beaufort Wal-Mart located 350 Robert Smalls Parkway beginning at 4 p.m.
The next FLW Kingfish Tour event will be held Sept. 21-23 in Southport, N.C.
The $1.82 million Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour consists of four regular-season events. After four events are complete, the top 50 teams compete in the three-day, no-entry-fee $500,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship to be held in Mount Pleasant, S.C., Nov. 9-11. The championship team will take home as much as $150,000.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers 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, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish 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 title sponsor of all FLW Outdoors events. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.