Team Kwazar eclipses field to capture Kingfish Tour title

Alabama natives net $12,000 first-place prize

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – With the entire Walmart FLW Kingfish Tour field grounded for two straight days as a result of the dangerous storm surge produced by Hurricane Ike, Team Kwazar couldn’t wait to finally hit the water in Sunday’s competition and take their chances with the rescheduled one-day tournament shootout.

However, in the end, the two-day delay was well worth the wait.

Bolstered by a one-day catch of 38 pounds, 1 ounce, Team Kwazar waltzed to victory, outfishing their nearest competitors by nearly 8 full pounds to take home their very first FLW tournament title.

“Oh, man, it’s a wonderful feeling,” said Team Kwazar member Mike Ward. “Any time you win, it’s a special thing. You can’t be happier than when you win.”

Team Kwazar Capt. Marcus Kennedy agreed.

“We’re tickled to death to win in these conditions,” said Kennedy, whose team bested 30 other teams to take home the first-place trophy. “Our plan really came together today. It made all of this waiting around worth it.”

Although the tournament was slated to run from Sept. 12-14, Hurricane Ike forced the cancellation of the first two days of tournament action. As a result, the entire field left the marina early this morning for a one-day, abbreviated winner-take-all competition.

“I think we had a little bit of an advantage today because we’re locals,” said Kennedy. “We’re all from Mobile, and I’ve been fishing here my whole life. So I think that helped us.”

Team Kwazar said they made a run 65 miles south of Orange Beach, targeting kingfish on rocky outcrops in anywhere from 130 to 170 feet of water.

“We had eight spots today, and we hit all eight of them,” said Kennedy. “We wound up catching our biggest fish on our second spot. Coming in, I thought that fish was big enough for a top-five finish. But I honestly didn’t think it was big enough to win. I told our crew that it was a `maybe’ fish.”

Ultimately, Team Kwazar’s `maybe fish’ turned into the tournament winner.

“We knew it was a top-five fish. But when we got to the dock and saw what other people had, we started to think we had a real shot at winning this thing,” said Ward.

However, in many respects, it appears that Team Kwazar won the tournament with a gutsy decision a few days prior.

“On Wednesday, we decided to go out and catch our bait despite the weather,” said Ward. “At that time, the hurricane was still coming towards us. We left at about 7 a.m. to get our bait, and by the time we were heading back in, we were running into 8- to 10-foot waves. Basically, we left at the last possible moment to try and catch bait for this tournament. And it really paid off.

“While most everyone else waited until today to catch their bait, we were able to fish from the start. That made a huge difference. We were at our spot a good 45 minutes before we even saw another boat. I really think that was the key to our win.”

Team Land O’Lakes nabs second

Using a catch of 30 pounds, 13 ounces, Team Land O’Lakes snared second place overall, capturing over $5,000 in winnings.

“We made a 200-mile roundtrip run today, and we worked for every pound of that 30-pound fish,” said Brian Bailey Jr., who finished in the runner-up position with teammate and father Brian Bailey Sr. “We were really hoping to land a 40-pounder because that’s what we thought it would take to win. But we’re just happy we finally had an opportunity to go fishing. We’re really tired of being cooped up inside these last few days. At this point, we didn’t even care what the weather was. We just wanted to get out there and go fishing.”

Best of the rest

Team Cat Daddy took third place overall with a catch of 29 pounds, 5 ounces. The team netted $3,000 for their efforts.

Meanwhile, Team Fish Fever 2/Strike Zone landed in fourth place with a total catch of 27 pounds, 9 ounces to claim $2,400 in prize money.

Rounding out the top-five finalists was Team Folgers, which landed a catch of 27 pounds, 2 ounces to capture $2,100 in prize money.

FLW Kingfish Tour action resumes Oct. 17-19 at Wrightsville Beach, N.C.