Walmart FLW Kingfish Tour, Series to visit Orange Beach

Storm clouds hung low over the Foley Beach Expressway as teams check out for day one of the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series Championship in Orange Beach, Ala. Photo by David A. Brown.

August 25, 2008 • MLF • Archives

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – The Walmart FLW Kingfish Tour and the Walmart FLW Kingfish Series – two of the nation’s top king mackerel tournament circuits – are headed to Orange Beach, Ala., for lucrative events offering top awards of $100,000 and $15,000, respectively. As many as 100 teams will compete in the FLW Kingfish Tour event, which features a $300,000 cash purse and runs Sept. 12-14, while as many as 50 teams fish the FLW Kingfish Series tournament, which features a $50,000 purse Sept. 13.

Both events will launch from The Wharf located at 4550 Main St. in Orange Beach. Teams will take off daily at 6:30 a.m. and scales will open at 4 p.m at The Wharf. All teams must check in by 5 p.m. On Sunday, the FLW Kingfish Tour will hold its final weigh-in and awards presentation at The Wharf starting at 5 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

In addition to lucrative cash awards, teams fishing the FLW Kingfish Tour are vying for valuable points that could earn them a berth into the no-entry-fee $500,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship in Biloxi, Miss., Nov. 14-16 for a shot at winning as much as $150,000. Teams fishing the FLW Kingfish Series are also vying for berths into a no-entry-fee championship that will be held in Biloxi Nov. 14-15. The top five teams from each tournament and the top 20 teams (who are not already qualified) from the year-end points standings will advance to the FLW Kingfish Series Championship, which offers a top award of $15,000.

“The fish (in Orange Beach) are generally bigger than the east coast fish,” said Randy Griffin Jr. of Hampstead, N.C., captain of the “Team M&Ms” boat. “It’s definitely fun to go fish down there.

“It should be a good time to fish Orange Beach,” Griffin added. “The fish there generally show up a little bit later, but there’s still quality fish there all year long. It just boils down to getting there ahead of time to find them.”

Griffin said his team will rely on blue runners – also known as hardtails – to target larger fish. Griffin predicts that many teams will stay close to Orange Beach for the event, but as always, some teams will make a run in order to find the winning kingfish.

“Some teams will make some 100-mile-plus runs,” Griffin said. “Then again, a lot of times you don’t have to run very far at all. A lot of times it depends on water clarity near shore. If the water is clear near the beach, the fish won’t be very far away.”

A limited number of openings are still available in both Orange Beach tournaments. The entry free for the FLW Kingfish Series is $500 per team and the entry fee for the FLW Kingfish Tour is $1,500 per team. Teams may register online at www.flwoutdoors.com or by calling (270) 252-1000. Entries will also be accepted during on-site registration for the FLW Kingfish Tour on Sept. 11 from 4 to 6 p.m. at The Wharf-Amphitheater located at 23325 Amphitheater Drive in Orange Beach.

Tournament anglers aren’t the only ones winning big this season. With the introduction of FLW Fantasy Fishing, FLW Outdoors offered anyone the opportunity to enter for their chance to land the catch of a lifetime with the opportunity to win $7.3 million in cash and prizes. Players could become a virtual pro angler by signing up for Player’s Advantage, which provided them with exclusive insider information that could have guided them to a $100,000 victory at every Walmart FLW Tour stop and the Forrest Wood Cup. Player’s Advantage gave them an edge over the competition and increased their shot for the $1 million cash grand prize awarded to the FLW Fantasy Fishing cumulative points winner. Visit FantasyFishing.com today to find out more information and to register for next season.

Coverage of the FLW Kingfish Tour stop in Orange Beach, hosted by the Alabama Gulf Coast Sports Commission, will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program airing Nov. 16. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast in Canada on WFN (World Fishing Network) and to more than 429 million households in the United Kingdom, Europe, Russia, Australia, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East through a distribution agreement with Matchroom Sport, making it the most widely distributed fishing program in the world. The program airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time in most markets. Check local listings for times in your area.

The FLW Kingfish Tour will stop in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., Oct. 17-19 for its final regular-season event.

FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2008 alone the organization is offering more than 90,000 anglers the chance to win over $40 million through 230 tournaments in 10 circuits. FLW Outdoors is also taking fishing mainstream with the largest prizes and cash awards in the history of fantasy sports, $7.3 million.

For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.

FLW Kingfish Tour awards are based on full fields of 100 boats in qualifying events, and FLW Kingfish Series awards are based on full fields of 50 boats in qualifying events.