TIERRA VERDE, Fla. – Team Baitmasters, captained by Robert Aylesworth of St. Petersburg, Fla., took home Gulf Coast Division Team of the Year honors and qualified for two of the most lucrative championships in kingfishing following the May 26 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series stop in Tierra Verde.
Aylesworth and his teammates, Phil Whitehouse and Justin Rice, both of St. Petersburg, Fla., are now headed to the $275,000 FLW Kingfish Series Championship and $500,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship, where the nation’s best kingfish teams will compete for top awards of $70,000 and $150,000, respectively.
Team Baitmasters captured the Team of the Year title with 436 out of a possible 500 points thanks to a second-place finish at the season opener in Sarasota, a third-place finish at stop No. 2 in Tierra Verde and a 12th-place showing at the third and final stop of the year, also in Tierra Verde.
“We feel really good about winning this,” Aylesworth said. “This is only our second season with FLW Outdoors. We came on late in the season last year and put this team together on a whim.
“Being named points champions means that we have accomplished a lot this year. We came out of the gate really strong early this season and kind of slacked off late, but we were still able to secure the title. As a team, we have a really good system on how to run things and a wealth of experience between the three of us. It was good to put all those years of experience and some luck together and pull this off.”
Aylesworth’s team will face the top three teams from each of the 15 FLW Kingfish Series tournaments held in 2007 plus the top 16 teams from each division in the points standings from each of five FLW Kingfish Series divisions during the three-day, no-entry-fee FLW Kingfish Series Championship in Orange Beach, Ala., Oct. 4-6. From there, Team Baitmasters will advance to the three-day, no-entry-fee FLW Kingfish Tour Championship presented by BP in Biloxi, Miss., Nov. 2-4, where they will compete against the points champions from each of five FLW Kingfish Series divisions and the top 50 teams in the FLW Kingfish Tour points standings.
Both championships will be featured in one-hour episodes of “FLW Outdoors” broadcast to 80 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) households in the United States and more than 429 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom. This reach makes “FLW Outdoors” 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.
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.