FORT PIERCE, Fla. – Team Cat Daddy headed by Captain Danny Mathis of Gonzales, La., caught an impressive kingfish on day two weighing 56 pounds, 5 ounces to win the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour event presented by Yamaha in Fort Pierce. A field of 107 teams competed for a share of the $300,000 purse. Team Cat Daddy earned an unprecedented $100,000 cash in the $1.7 million tour’s inaugural event.
“We were fairly confident that we could beat the 51-pounder caught yesterday,” said Mathis, a Hydra-Sports and Yamaha pro staff member. “We’ve been around some big fish and were in fourth place yesterday with a 35-pounder. So we thought that fish was beatable. With the rough water, we just weren’t sure if we could get to our spot 10 miles past Jupiter Inlet. But we got down there and caught the big one right off the bat.
“We were in 70 feet of water – about a mile off the beach. The fish hit a blue runner about 200 feet behind the boat. We’ve actually got three captains on the team. We wanted to put together a team that had a real chance of winning, and everyone did an excellent job.
“It was really a great day because a camera crew was with us, and we had the entire day to enjoy that catch. We obviously didn’t know for sure that it would win, but we felt good about it. We’re so appreciative of what FLW is doing for all of us fishermen. This was a great event.”
Along with Mathis, team Cat Daddy consists of Bob Clement of Mobile, Ala.; Guy Koontz of Baton Rouge, La.; Rusty Mathis of Amite, La.; and Steve Shook of Golden Meadow, La.
Team Capt. Dan, headed by 17-year-old Captain Daniel Gourley of Hardeeville, S.C. – leader after day one with a 51-pound, 14-ounce kingfish, finished in second place and earned $18,400.
Rounding out the top five teams were the Hannon’s Cannon team captained by Kevin Hannon of Seminole (50 pounds, 9 ounces, $16,150); team Off Shore Authority captained by David Kingery of Melbourne (42 pounds, 13 ounces, $12,650); and team Predator captained by Jack Wood of Wake Forest, N.C. (41 pounds, 3 ounces, $14,900).
FLW Kingfish Tour qualifying tournaments are two-day events. The entire field competes Friday and Saturday, and the winning team is determined Saturday based on the heaviest kingfish of the tournament.
When registration opened for the FLW Kingfish Tour in February, every qualifying event filled in less than 48 hours. As a result of continued strong demand, FLW Outdoors expanded the field for the season opener from its previously established 100 boats to 107 boats and is considering an increase for other tour stops. Along with the field increase, the payback for the season opener was increased and an additional place was added to the payout schedule.
The next FLW Kingfish Tour event, presented by Raymarine, will be held June 10-11 in Venice, La. Anglers interested in entering may call FLW Outdoors at 270-252-1000. Entry fees are $1,500 per team.
The $1.7 million Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour consists of four regular-season events. After four events are complete, the top 50 teams compete in the three-day, no-entry-fee $500,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship to be held in D’Iberville, Miss., Oct. 13-15. The championship team will take home as much as $150,000.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and seven other national tournament circuits offering a combined $30 million in awards through 214 events in 2005. The 27-year-old organization is the purveyor of America’s largest and most prestigious fishing tournaments, including the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1997 and today is the title sponsor of all FLW Outdoors events.