Rough water cancels day two of Kingfish Tour Championship
BILOXI, Miss. – Due to marine weather forecasts calling for high winds and rough seas, FLW tournament management cancelled the second day of the Walmart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship, where anglers are competing for a top award of $75,000 cash in the lucrative no-entry-fee tournament. The event will continue on Sunday when the top five teams from day one take to the water for final round competition.
Tournament Director Dan Grimes said he based his decision on FLW’s overriding concern for its competitors. Grimes referenced the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast for winds of 20-25 mph with gusts to 45 and seas building to eight feet.
“We have big seas and we don’t want to put people in harm’s way,” Grimes said. “We also don’t want to give people the opportunity to put themselves in harm’s way. We could make this a `captain’s choice’ (team captain decides if his team competes), but then somebody might go somewhere they shouldn’t go, and we don’t want that to happen. Getting somebody hurt is not worth all the money in the world.”
Team “Loose Lucy” captained by Mike Kaminsky of Charleston, S.C., leads the event with a 57-pound, 10-ounce kingfish. Rounding out the top five teams are “Team BP” captained by Mike Edwards of Wilmington, N.C. (49-07); team “K Sea Lake” captained by Danny Carter of Morehead City, N.C. (45-10); “Team Coppertone” captained by Jay Robertson of Pawleys Island, S.C. (44-01); and team “Sake 1” captained by Danny Marsocci of Okeechobee, Fla. (43-15).
Teams will add their Sunday weight to their Day 1 weight and the heaviest two-day weight will claim the championship.
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 Championship will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program airing Jan. 18, 2009. “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.
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 also took fishing mainstream with the largest cash awards in the history of fantasy sports, $7.3 million.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.