DAUPHIN ISLAND, Ala. – Team Wild Ride/M&M’s, headed by Randy Spainhour from Southport, N.C., caught a kingfish weighing 53 pounds, 10 ounces Saturday to win the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series Upper Gulf Division event in Dauphin Island, Ala., and $30,000 cash.
Spainhour, along with teammate James Gunter also of Hampstead, N.C., caught a number of quality sized kings trolling two lines tipped with large blue runners around offshore oil rigs, 30 to 50 miles offshore.
“Everything went great today,” Spainhour said. “The bait was really easy to catch and the conditions were perfect today. We caught close to 30 fish today and only stuck two. At the end of the day today, I was bagging up the fish that we thought we were going to bring to the weigh-in when the last rod we had in the water went off and produced the big one we weighed. The hardest part of the day was just trying to find the right oil rig with the right fish. We really enjoy coming over to the gulf and being able to fish for this kind of money.”
Rounding out the top five teams were Airborne, captained by Steve Mcullen of Gulf Breeze, Fla. (49 pounds, 11 ounces, $2,940); Team Lured Away, captained by Robert Schoenfeld of Conroe, Texas (44 pounds, 15 ounces, $3,430); Team Kwazar, captained by Marcus Kennedy of Mobile, Ala. (44 pounds, 7 ounces, $2,266.25); and Team Crawgator, captained by Bill Butler of Belle Chasse, La. (44 pounds, $1,715).
Andrew Powell of Mobile, Ala., a member of Team Ken’s Car Tunes earned the tournament’s award for the highest-finishing competitor under 16 years old.
The award for highest-finishing woman went to Ashley Butler of Belle Chasse, La, who placed fifth with a 44-pound kingfish as a member of Team Crawgator.
FLW Kingfish Series qualifying tournaments are one-day events. Each team is allowed to weigh in one kingfish, and the winning team is determined by the heaviest fish. The next FLW Kingfish Series Upper Gulf Division event will be held July 28 in Cocodrie, La., followed by one Aug. 11 in Galveston, Texas.
The FLW Kingfish Series consists of five divisions – East Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina/Georgia, Gulf and Upper Gulf. Each division is comprised of three events with a $100,000 purse for each event. The top three teams from each tournament and the top 16 teams (who are not already qualified) from each division after all qualifiers are complete will advance to the three-day, $275,000 no-entry-fee Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series Championship in Orange Beach, Ala., Oct. 4-6, which will be featured in a one-hour episode of “FLW Outdoors” broadcast to 80 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) households in the United States and more than 429 million households in Europe, Asia and Africa. The points champion from each division will also advance directly to the $500,000 no-entry-fee Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship in Biloxi, Miss., Nov. 2-4, where they will compete against top FLW Kingfish Tour teams for a top award of $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 presented by Abu Garcia, Ranger Owners Tournament Championship Series, 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 of nearly $43 million through 241 events in 2007.
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 Walmart.com.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, browse FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.