BEAUFORT, S.C. – Team “Relentless” captained by Tony Davenport of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., caught a kingfish weighing 24 pounds, 14 ounces Sunday to win $100,000 in the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour event presented by Yamaha in Beaufort, S.C., with a two day total of two king mackerel weighing 65-15.
Captain Davenport and his crew – Mike Brandon, Lloyd Cook, Don Bolt all of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., and Danny Ashley of Helena, Ga., reported that they hadn’t caught a single fish before landing the team’s only at approximately 1 p.m. Their tournament winning fish came on a live blue runner trolled in a six line spread near the Gray’s Reef area. Team Relentless caught a 41-pound, 1-ounce kingfish on day one using the same technique to qualify for the final round of five teams in second place.
“This is exciting,” said Davenport, whose team had been so close so many times before but just wasn’t able to get their first FLW Kingfish Tour win until Sunday. “It’s not everyday you get to pick up $100,000. We have been working on this win for quite sometime now. I’m just glad my wife was here to see the payback. She isn’t into fishing, but she is a great supporter. Now she knows why I spend all this time and money doing this.
“Today started off pretty slow. We gambled and used our left over bait from yesterday instead of burning precious fishing time looking for fresh bait. We were the first boat to pull in the area and were fishing about 45 minutes before the other boats arrived. We fished this one area until about 11 o’clock and got kind of nervous watching everyone around us catch fish while we weren’t.
“We had just moved to different spot where we knew some schools of bait were when the downrigger popped off and the fish made a long run stripping off about 300 yards of line. We got the fished gaffed and in the boat and decided we should make the run back in. We arrived at the check station with only five minutes to spare. We were really lucky today.”
Rounding out the top five teams were Team “Second Mortgage” captained by Larry McDuffie of Pittsboro, N.C. (two kingfish, 64-4, $31,600); Team “Blue By U” captained by Welsh Carson of Holden Beach, N.C. (two kingfish, 55-00, $18,500); Team “M&M’s” captained by Randy Griffin of Hampstead, N.C. (two kingfish, 52-5, $14,900); and Team “Evinrude” captained by Rick Smith of Brunswick, Ga. (one kingfish, 35-9, $13,100).
FLW Kingfish Tour qualifying tournaments are three-day events. The entire field competed Friday and Saturday, and the top five teams based on the heaviest kingfish from either day competed Sunday.
Coverage of the Beaufort tournament hosted by the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States Oct. 14 as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to 429 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed fishing program in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 servicemembers stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.
The $1.7 million Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour consists of four regular-season events. After four events are complete, the top 50 teams will compete in the three-day, no-entry-fee $500,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship presented by BP in Biloxi, Miss., Nov. 2-4. The winning team at the championship will take home as much as $150,000.
The FLW Kingfish Tour will stop in Atlantic beach, N.C., Sept. 28-30 for its final regular-season event, presented by Raymarine, followed by the $500,000 FLW Kingfish Tour Championship in Biloxi, Miss., Nov. 2-4.
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, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.