SARASOTA, Fla. – Team East Coast Sports, captained by Randall Edens of Hampstead, N.C., caught a kingfish weighing 35 pounds, 1 ounce Friday to lead day one of the $300,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour event in Sarasota, where the nation’s top king mackerel teams are competing for a top award of as much as $100,000 cash.
Sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s made for pleasant fishing Friday, and a morning chop on the ocean settled down, leaving smooth water for anglers. Captain Edens and his crew – George Edens, Jeremy Newton and Chris Gaddy – caught his weigh fish five minutes after arriving at their spot after a 150-mile run. Edens said the fish was the first of three fish caught by the team and it was boated at approximately 10:30 a.m. All of the fish came on blue runner, mullet and ribbonfish fished on flat lines, top lines and downrigger lines.
“It was a very eventful day,” said Edens, whose team is fishing in their third year of Kingfish Tour competition. “About 90 miles into our run we broke a trim tab. I mean it was hanging on by the hydraulic hoses. So we had to stop and we got down in the water and took the trim tab off so it wouldn’t beat the boat up. You don’t realize how much you use your trim tabs until you have trouble with them.
“We got to our spot, some bait busted and we stopped on the bait and tried to throw our baits right in the middle of them,” Edens added. “We hadn’t even got set and he was on.”
Rounding out the top five teams are Loose Lucy captained by Mike Kaminsky of Charleston, S.C. (28 pounds, 8 ounces); Hocus Pocus captained by John Hardie of Jacksonville, Fla. (27 pounds, 13 ounces); Buck Wild captained by Clint Higdon of Pensacola, Fla. (27 pounds, 8 ounces); and Team Kellogg’s captained by Bryan Edwards of Little River, S.C. (27 pounds, 6 ounces).
When the scales finally closed, 37 teams had landed kingfish weighing more than 788 pounds.
FLW Kingfish Tour qualifying tournaments are three-day events. The entire field competes Friday and Saturday, and the top five teams compete Sunday. The winning team is determined based on the heaviest kingfish from Friday or Saturday plus the heaviest kingfish from Sunday. Teams will take off from the Hyatt Regency on Sarasota Bay located at 1000 Boulevard of the Arts in Sarasota at 6:30 each morning. Scales open at the marina at 4 p.m. Saturday and all teams must check-in by 6 p.m. Sunday’s final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 13140 S. Tamiami Trail in Osprey, Fla., beginning at 5 p.m. The takeoff and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
Coverage of the Sarasota tournament hosted by the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureauwill be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program airing July 27. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast in Canada on WFN (World Fishing Network) and to more than 429 million households in the United Kingdom, Europe, Russia, Australia, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East through a distribution agreement with Matchroom Sport, making it the most widely distributed fishing program in the world. The program airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time in most markets. Check local listings for times in your area.
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 in Biloxi, Miss., Nov. 14-16. The winning team at the championship will take home as much as $150,000.
Tournament pros aren’t the only ones winning big this season. With the introduction of FLW Fantasy Fishing™, FLW Outdoors® offers anyone the opportunity to enter for their chance to land the catch of a lifetime with the opportunity to win $7.3 million in cash and prizes. Players can become a virtual pro angler by signing up for Player’s Advantage, providing them with exclusive insider information that could guide them to a $100,000 victory at every Wal-Mart FLW Tour® stop and the Forrest Wood Cup. Player’s Advantage will give them an edge over the competition and increase their shot for a $1 million cash grand prize that will be awarded to the FLW Fantasy Fishing cumulative points winner. Those who visit FantasyFishing.com today can sign up for Player’s Advantage and FLW Outdoors will include a $15 Wal-Mart gift card.
The FLW Kingfish Tour will stop in Venice, La., Aug. 15-17 for its second regular-season event, followed by an event Sept. 12-14 at Orange Beach, Ala. The tour’s last qualifying event will be held in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., Oct. 17-19.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2008 alone the organization is offering more than 90,000 anglers the chance to win over $40 million through 230 tournaments in 10 circuits targeting bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass. FLW Outdoors is also taking fishing mainstream with the largest cash awards in the history of fantasy sports, $7.3 million.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.
Awards are based on a full field of 100 boats in qualifying tournaments.