Quick Bites: FLW Kingfish Tour Championship, Day 2
Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship
Morehead City, N.C.
Friday, opening round
Help us, Tony … As day two of the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship weigh-in wound down, news circulated that Team Kellogg’s had a lion-sized king – make that a tiger-sized king. As the team approached the stage, cameras gathered around and Team Kellogg’s member Kirk Lewellen reached into his fish bag and pull out …Tony the Tiger, the Team Kellogg’s mascot and good luck charm. Unfortunately Tony wasn’t enough to keep the team in the top 10, and they finished 14th.
Top-10 shuffle … After the scales came to a close on day two, four new teams – Early Riser, Reel Culture, Captain Dan and East Coast Sports – all broke into the top 10 with their day-two catches. Those falling from the top 10 were teams No Limit, Kellogg’s, Alan Vester Automotive and Streaker. The top-10 cut weight settled on 24 pounds, 10 ounces.
Early Riser has risen … After weighing in the biggest fish of the event, 38 pounds, 1 ounce, Team Early Riser asked if they could weigh another king they had caught. Their second fish weighed 30 pounds, 11 ounces, which also would have put them in the top 10. Two top-10 fish in one day: Watch out for these guys tomorrow.
Common denominators … Team Early Riser and Team Reel Culture posted the two biggest kings of the day. Ironically, both teams specifically mentioned getting away from the large crowd of tournament boats as being the biggest factor in catching bigger kings. Also, Reel Culture reported catching its fish on the prop-wash bait. “We’ve caught a lot of our fish this week on the prop-wash bait,” noted Reel Culture’s James Hammonds. Team Early Riser’s second big king (30-11) also hit the prop-wash bait.
Sky blues … Team Marcia-D has had a big week in Morehead, N.C. After winning the last FLW Kingfish Tour qualifier preceding the championship, they barely qualified for the championship in the last position (50th). But today, their luck ran out. “As we were cleaning out our bait tanks at the end of the day and dumping all the live bait out before check-in, a 40-plus-pound king skyed on the baits just about 20 feet from the boat,” recounted crew member Don Wilsey. “It was a heartbreaker, but it happens.”
Capt. Dan is the man … At 17 years of age, Capt. Dan Gourley of Team Captain Dan is the youngest captain on the FLW Kingfish Tour. Today he scored his third top-10 of the year by bringing in a 27-pound, 7-ounce fish to qualify in seventh place. “My goal all year was just to make the championship,” Gourley said, shaking with excitement. “Now, to make the top 10 in the championship? This is just icing on the cake. I don’t know what to say. It’s been an awesome year.” Even though he is 11 pounds off the lead, Gourley is excited about a spot he found at the end of the day. “We saw several kings in the high 30s skying,” he said. “We never hooked up with one, but we didn’t get to fish there very long. I can’t wait to try that spot tomorrow.”
King-sized error … Yesterday, Capt. David Kingery of Team Off Shore Authority brought two similar-size kings to the docks. Since his onboard scales were broken, Kingery eyeballed both fish and picked the one that looked the longest. “I mean, this king was at least six inches longer than the other one,” he said. Kingery then proceeded to weigh his fish and take it back to his boat. “I saw some other guys weighing fish with scales, so I asked if I could borrow the scales,” he explained. “When I weighed both fish on the scales, I discovered that I had taken the lighter one to the scales as my officially scored king.” The shorter fish was actually 2 pounds heavier. His team finished 27th instead of about 17th. The cost of his mistake? $1,000. “It could have been a whole lot worse,” he added. “It could have kept me from the top 10; then I would have really been sick.”
Sound bites
“My wife said if I don’t start catching some fish, they’re going to start calling me `Little Chief.'”
– James Hammonds of Team Reel Culture on his nickname “Big Chief.”
“Chumming – it’s like when you’re driving in your car with the windows down and you’re not really hungry, but then you drive by a cookout and smell steaks sizzling on the grill and suddenly you are hungry. That’s chumming.”
– Jason Hodge of Team No Limit explaining his chumming philosophy to tournament director Dan Grimes.
“A friend of mine once said second place is just the same as first loser. With the amount of money involved here, I’d much rather be first loser than 11th place.”
– Captain Mike Webb of Team Alan Vester Automotive on his feelings about missing the top 10 by a mere 4 ounces.