SOUTHPORT, N.C. – Team Nailhead, captained by Johnny Walker of Gainesville, GA. caught a kingfish weighing 42 pounds, 9 ounces to lead day one of the $330,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour event Powered by Tyson in Southport, where teams are competing for a top award of as much as $100,000 cash.
Fishing an Evinrude-powered Wellcraft center console, Walker was joined by Thomas Little III and Randy Bell, both of Gainesville, GA. and Danny Parker of Pendergrass, GA. The team found the top kingfish over a reef in 60 feet of water about 40 miles east of Carolina Beach, N.C.
Walker and crew turned tragedy into triumph when one of their triple outboards malfunctioned while running to their intended fishing spot off Morehead City, NC. “We just turned and went out the inlet and went with Plan B that we had for the second day. (Losing an engine) didn’t really affect our fishing. It really just affected how far we could go at high speed.”
A gusty northeast wind, compounded by the distant influence of Hurricane Helene had stirred the Atlantic, but Walker said the conditions were workable. “The seas were big, but the wind didn’t have them chopped up really bad. It was kind of a big swell, so it wasn’t terrible.”
The big kingfish ate a ribbonfish on a downrigger 40 feet deep at 1 p.m. Parker fought the fish for about 30 minutes and Bell gaffed it. “He kept getting under the boat because the wind kept knocking us back on top of him. We were scrambling around and we were all on the edge for a little while.”
Rounding out the top five teams are Team Kellogg’s captained by Bryan Edwards of Little River, S.C. (35 pounds, 10 ounces); Team Lured Away captained by Robert Schoenfeld of Conroe, Texas (28 pounds, 14 ounces); Team Hogg Heaven captained by Jason Hogg of Mount Pleasant, SC (27 pounds, 08 ounces); Team Castroll captained by Nick Parrish of Jacksonville, Fla. (24 pounds, 10 ounces).
Teams caught 37 kingfish Thursday weighing 643 pounds, 15 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 South Harbor Marina Friday and Saturday at 7 a.m. Friday’s weigh-in will be held at South Harbor Marina beginning at 3 p.m., and the final weigh-in will be held at the Southport Wal-Mart located 1675 N. Howe Rd. beginning at approximately 4 p.m.
The Southport tournament is the final stop on the $1.82 million Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour consisting of four regular-season events. 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, browse 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.