Quick Bites: FLW Kingfish Tour Championship, Day 1
Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship
Morehead City, N.C.
Thursday, opening round
Playing hooky … It’s a good thing there were no truant officers present at the Kingfish Championship weigh-in Thursday, because they would have hit the jackpot. Fourteen-year-old Kristin Johnston, who brought Team Marcia-D‘s catch to the scales, was the first to admit to tournament director Dan Grimes that her desk at school was dubiously vacant today. “I’m an honor-roll student, so it’s OK,” she giggled as she heaved up a 19-pound, 9-ounce kingfish for the cameras. “But, if anyone asks, let’s just say I was sick today, OK?” she added, trying to corroborate an alibi with Grimes. Next came 17-year-old Capt. Dan Gourley of Team Captain Dan, a senior in high school who was also missing class today. “I had to sit in school all week while the rest of the team came here to fish the last qualifier,” he said. “All I did this week at school was check the weather and FLWOutdoors.com Web site to see how the team was faring,” Gourley said. “When I saw they had made the championship, I cut class and headed straight here. I just love this stuff.” Finally, Adam Aberle of Team Slip N’ Slide also `fessed up to missing classes at East Carolina University, where he is a senior studying construction management. “My professors know exactly what I’m doing,” he said. “We won $100,000 at Venice earlier this year, so they’ll excuse me.”
The great de-bait … One of the critical aspects of kingfishing is the bait. Unquestionably, live bait is the most desirable, but there are always differences of opinions about exactly which live bait is the best. Pogies, or menhaden, always get good reviews as do bluefish, mullet and ribbonfish. Capt. Mitch Yates of Team Sea Rat (currently fourth with 29-15) will spend up to two hours of his fishing day catching the freshest bait possible, as he did this morning. “It took us until about 9:30 to get our bait,” he said. “Live bait is good, but livelier baits are even better. Today we used pogies, and we put fresh baits on our line every 15 to 30 minutes.” Rusty Rogers of Team Double Shot (currently in third with 30-12) said he does not feel comfortable unless he has at least 50 baits on board. Today the team relied on pogies and ribbonfish for their catch. Frank Strickland also reported that his Team Rebecca Ann used a ribbonfish to land their tournament-leading king. And what if you can’t decide what to use? Then you might take a page out of Team Chevy‘s notebook (currently fifth with 27 pounds) and troll a bait buffet, of sorts. “We caught our king on a double-rig that featured a mullet on the front hook and a blue on the back hook,” quipped Capt. Larry Fowler. “I’ve never done that before, but it worked today.”
Line dancing … Many championship competitors are fishing an area known as “Dead Tree Hole.” At any given time, as many as 30 tournament boats can be seen trolling this area, and occasionally things get a little twisted, so to speak. Today Capt. Gill Strelec of Team Psycho watched in horror as his hooked kingfish tore off toward another boat and tangled up with a fish the other team was fighting. “In order to get untangled, I had to raise up my rod and the other boat (Team Seahorse) had to pass under my line,” Strelec described. “It was intense for a moment, but somehow we got untangled and both teams boated their fish.”
Record fight … Kingfish are known for their blazing runs that can sometimes take up to a half-hour to tame on hook and line. But Capt. Danny Duncan of Team Miss Behavin’ wanted to claim the record for the shortest kingfish fight in FLW Kingfish Tour history. The duration of the battle? Less than a second. “The guys were fighting a fish off the bow, and all of a sudden I heard this splash by the transom. I turned around, and another kingfish was coming right at me in midair with our prop-wash bait in its mouth. The fish landed in the boat and started snapping at everything in sight,” Duncan recounted. (Kingfish teams often trail a live bait on a very short line in the prop wash of the motors) “This crazy king had basically charged our prop-wash bait, skied into the air and landed in the boat without us ever taking the rod out of the holder. I think that qualifies as the shortest kingfish fight in history.”
Keys, please…Team Raymarine member Lynn Hatfield was awarded a triplet of key
floats by FLW Kingfish Tournament Director Dan Grimes following a mishap on Tuesday in which one of Team Raymarine’s Yamaha Outboard keys went over board, rendering one of the three motors useless. “A crew member had all three keys in his pocket, and when he went to pull them out, one flipped over into the water,” Hatfield said. “We’ve since acquired another key, so we’re in good shape.” And now, with their new key floats, courtesy of FLW Outdoors, all keys should be safe.