MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. – Timing is everything as they say, and for Team Sea Rat headed by Mitch Yates of Winston Salem, N.C., Friday was the perfect time to catch the second-heaviest king mackerel of the 2006 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour season. The 50-pound, 6-ounce monster launched Yates and his team from a 12-way tie for last place to the top of the leaderboard in the most lucrative kingfish championship in the nation. Team Sea Rat will now face four other challengers in the final round of competition for a top award of as much as $150,000 cash.
Yates and his team entered the championship as the No. 38 seed in a field of 50 qualifiers, and after coming back empty handed on opening day, things might have looked bleak to the casual onlooker. Yates was confident, however, that calming seas and warming temperatures hinted at good things to come, and he was right.
“We caught a few fish on opening day, but nothing that we felt would help us, so we didn’t weigh anything in,” said Yates, whose team finished sixth at last year’s championship in Morehead City, N.C. “We knew with calm seas and warmer temperatures in the forecast that the bite would be really good today.”
Yates and his crew ran 35 miles northeast of Charleston to a location known locally as “The Not So Secret Hole” – an area of live bottom that holds a significant amount of bait, and consequently big kingfish, in 65 to 75 feet of water. The area is located approximately 20 miles off the beach.
“We fished there with about half the fleet on opening day,” Yates said. “Today, there were more than 40 boats fishing the hole, and I suspect that we will all be fishing there tomorrow.”
That would seem to be a good choice, as three of the top five kingfish came for the area on opening day and all five kingfish that advanced teams to the final round came from the hole Friday.
Team Sea Rat caught their big kingfish on a live blue runner trolled approximately 50 yards behind their boat.
“We were running blue runners on top and ribbon fish on downriggers,” Yates said. “We caught six fish before 9:30, and they all hit the blue runners.”
Yates father, Burnes Yates Junior, reeled in the big king mackerel Friday while Yates manned the wheel and Chris Burleson handled gaffing duties.
Rounding out the top five teams advancing to the final round are Wild Ride Fishing Team captained by Randy Griffin Jr. of Hampstead, N.C. (45 pounds, 6 ounces); Team Sea Bandit captained by Dennis Stark of Pinebluff, N.C. (43 pounds, 15 ounces); Team Raymarine captained by John Parks of Jacksonville, N.C. (40 pounds, 7 ounces) and Team Lured Away captained by Robert Schoenfeld of Conroe, Texas (39 pounds).
The FLW Kingfish Tour Championship is a three-day event. The entire field competed Thursday and Friday and the top five teams, based on heaviest single fish from either Thursday or Friday, advanced to Saturday’s final round. The winning team will be determined based on the heaviest kingfish from Thursday or Friday plus the heaviest kingfish from Saturday. Boats will launch from Charleston Harbor Marina located at 24 Patriot’s Point Rd. in Mount Pleasant at 7 Saturday morning. The final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 1481 U.S. Highway 17 North in Mount Pleasant beginning at 4:30 p.m. The morning start and weigh-in are free and open to the public.
Team Folgers captained by David Kingery of Melbourne, Fla., caught the heaviest kingfish of the season during the FLW Kingfish Tour stop in Fort Pierce, Fla., in June. The fish weighed 57 pounds, 13 ounces.
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 presented by Abu Garcia, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $37.9 million through 249 events in 2006.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, 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 an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.