Team Bottom Line wins Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series event in Ft. Pierce
Team with family ties takes Florida-East Coast Division season opener
FT. PIERCE, Fla. – Team Bottom Line, captained by Reid Macy of Ft. Pierce, Fla., caught a kingfish weighing 51 pounds, 15 ounces to win the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series Florida-East Coast Division event in Ft. Pierce and $12,000 cash.
The winning team included the captain’s nephews Russ and Bobby Macy and his father-in-law, Charles Ferguson, of New Castle, Pa. Ferguson’s first kingfish trip proved monumental.
“He’s down on vacation, and he wanted to go fishing,” Reid Macy said. “He brought us luck, and now he has quite a story to tell.”
The winning team fished a patch of natural hard bottom in 35 feet of water a few miles north of the Ft. Pierce inlet. The captain’s lifetime of local experience led him to the spot, but he had to weed through an active bite from smaller kingfish before scoring the big one.
The tournament winner ate a dead ribbonfish on a downrigger set at 20 feet around 3:45 p.m. Macy said that this kingfish rejuvenated his mourning team. “We had just lost a nice fish,” he said. “It peeled off about 100 yards of line and came unhooked. We were a little upset about that, but it wasn’t two minutes later that the big one hit.”
The captain said the fish made one run of 100-200 feet, fought Bobby Macy for about five minutes and then slid into Russ Macy’s gaff range.
Teams faced a persistent wind of up to 25 knots, which muddied the water. Reid Macy said he was still able to find pockets of clean water measuring about 76 degrees. Throughout the day, he spotted several schools of baitfish hanging deep.
Rounding out the top five teams were Team Gatorfan, captained by Dave Albritton of Port St. Lucie, Fla. (48 pounds, 15 ounces, $3,540); Team Offshore Warrior captained by Tom Kenney of Port St. Lucie, Fla. (47 pounds, 12 ounces, $2,360); Team Double Down, captained by Brett Taylor of Fellsmere, Fla. (46 pounds, 7 ounces, $1,770); Sweet Maria captained by Matt Henderson of Jacksonville, Fla. (39 pounds, 10 ounces, $1,180).
FLW Kingfish Series qualifying tournaments are one-day events. The field competes Saturday, and the winning team is determined based on the heaviest kingfish. The next FLW Kingfish Series Florida – East Coast Division event will be held May 20 in Fernandina Beach, Fla.
The FLW Kingfish Series consists of five divisions: Florida – East Coast, Florida – West Coast, North Carolina, South Carolina/Georgia and Gulf Coast. Each division is comprised of three events with a $100,000 purse for each event, based on a full field. The top 100 teams – 20 from each division after three qualifying events – will qualify for the three-day, no-entry-fee $300,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series Championship to be held in Orange Beach, Ala., Oct. 26-28. The championship winner will take home as much as $75,000.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series, as well as the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $36.9 million through 241 events in 2006.
For more information on FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, browse FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.
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 world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.