Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series Championship to air Dec. 10 on FSN

Dec. 10 show to highlight $300,000 king mackerel tournament

MINNEAPOLIS – Tune in Sunday, Dec. 10 to “FLW Outdoors” on FSN for the $300,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series Championship held in Orange Beach, Ala. The final event of the $1.8 million season concludes with the winning team claiming a cash prize of up to $75,000.

The “FLW Outdoors” saltwater series is a reality-format show told from the anglers’ perspective. Each week the top-five finalists are followed from takeoff to weigh-in, allowing the audience to feel the anglers’ nerves, listen to their strategy and learn from their mistakes. The stories evolve and the suspense grows throughout the one-hour show until the final weigh-in results are announced.

The FLW Kingfish Series consists of five divisions – East Florida, West Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina-Georgia and Gulf Coast. The top 100 teams – 20 from each division after three qualifying events – qualified for the three-day, no-entry-fee championship. The entire field competes on day one and day two and the top five teams compete on day three. The winning team is determined based on the heaviest kingfish from day one or day two plus the heaviest kingfish from day three.

Teams fished in windy conditions on day one, but that didn’t deter Team Sweet Maria, who caught a kingfish weighing 44 pounds, 8 ounces to grab the overall lead at the conclusion of the opening round. Captained by Matt Henderson of Jacksonville, Fla., Sweet Maria caught their fish near a drilling rig in 70 feet of water, approximately 30 miles south of Mobile Bay. The fish ate a live blue runner with a double stinger rig on the short top line position. Crewman Rocky Warpool handled the rod and Henderson gaffed the fish after a 40-minute struggle. After getting bit early on day one, Henderson and Warpool plan to return to the very same rig on day three.

Team Psycho, captained by Gill Strelec of West Palm Beach, Fla., is in second with a mackerel weighing 41 pounds, 9 ounces. After boating a 41-pound, 6-ounce kingfish, Team Cat Daddy, captained by Danny Mathis of Gonzales, La., is third with one day of competition remaining. Cat Daddy, one of the most accomplished teams in professional kingfishing, has six top-10 finishes in only two years of FLW Outdoors competition. Tune in to see if they notch their second career victory at the inaugural FLW Kingfish Series Championship.

FSN broadcasts “FLW Outdoors” Sundays from 11 a.m. to noon Eastern time. Check local listings for show times and channels in your area. FLWOutdoors.com also provides an online show guide listing what events are coming up on “FLW Outdoors.”

FSN is available in more than 81 million homes through its network of 20 regional sports channels. Established in 1996, FSN is the only cable network that supplies national, regional and local sports programming. FSN serves as the cable TV home to 62 of the 82 MLB, NHL and NBA teams based in the United States, and produces over 4,500 live events each year. FSN has an extensive catalog of original national programs, including “Best Damn Sports Show Period” and “Beyond the Glory” documentary series, along with national packages of collegiate sports. Based in Los Angeles, FSN is part of the vast FOX Sports television family. For the latest up-to-the-minute sports news and opinions, visit the FOX Sports/FSN website at www.FoxSports.com.

“FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to more than 350 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoor-sports television show in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 service men and women stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.

Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail presented by Abu Garcia, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $37.9 million through 249 events in 2006.

Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.

For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, browse FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.