Holy mackerel

Wal-Mart's saltwater team savors sweet season, winning a championship its first year on the job

Wal-Mart’s first foray into fishing the salty seas was a sweet one. Team Wal-Mart landed the Southern Kingfish Association championship title as well as angler-of-the-year honors.

In 2002 Wal-Mart joined Wellcraft and Evinrude to sponsor a five-boat fishing fleet manned by some of the finest king mackerel anglers in the country. Team Wal-Mart, managed by FLW Outdoors, is subdivided into five boat teams with home bases spanning the southeastern portion of the United States. These teams compete separately in regional saltwater competitions and together in large-scale tournaments along the Yamaha Pro Tour, all under the SKA umbrella.

At the helm of Team Wal-Mart is 15-year saltwater-tournament veteran Rick Smith of Brunswick, Ga. He captains about two dozen professional anglers who operate 32- or 35-foot specially designed Wellcraft seafaring vessels.

Smith, whose Wild Turkey team won a major Pro Tour event off the coast of Georgia last season, said he was glad his team could make Wal-Mart’s inaugural year of saltwater sponsorship a success.

“We had high expectations going into (2002), and we fulfilled those at the championship,” he said.

Team Wal-Mart’s Fish Fever crew, captained by Ed Mecchella of St. Simons Island, Ga., had more than king mackerel on the line going into the second and final day of the November SKA National Championship held in Biloxi, Miss. After landing a 631/2-pound monster on the first day of competition, the four-man team’s 38¼-pound catch on day two secured the championship win and the Angler-of-the-Year Award, which goes to the team with the seven heaviest hogs caught during the Pro Tour.

Smith said it will be hard to top the team’s 2002 success this year, but he’s not one to shy away from a challenge. In fact, his goal for the team is to improve upon the record. Landing each of Team Wal-Mart’s boats at the top of the overall leaderboard by season’s end would constitute “the absolute royal flush – all boats, one through five,” he said.

Smith said there is a chance the cards could fall into place with such angling talent and such a high-powered sponsorship team on board. With the backing of Wal-Mart, one of the world’s largest corporations, in conjunction with sponsorships from boating giant Wellcraft and the elite motor company Evinrude, anything is possible, he said.

“With that combination, it’s hard not to produce,” Smith said. “We have the best of all worlds.”

Producing champion-sized kingfish means finding them. National SKA tournaments as well as regional ones are scheduled with king mackerel migration patterns in mind, Smith said. Southern Florida waters are bountiful in the winter, and populations tend to move north as spring ensues. For example, king mackerel tend to swim closer to shore in the spring and fall, Smith said, with weather patterns also playing a role in fish location. Kingfish numbers are also plentiful in the Gulf of Mexico, as are king mackerel tournaments.

“Typically we’re within three to 15 miles (offshore),” Smith said of where Team Wal-Mart boats operate. However, the hunt has taken them as far as 40 miles out to sea and as many as 125 miles up or down the coast from the takeoff point, as was the case during the 2002 championship where Team Wal-Mart scoured the seas in search of sizable kings.

As with proximity to shore, tournament location impacts where the target fish will be found when considering depth. Smith said Team Wal-Mart anglers usually fish between 25 and 50 feet deep on the East Coast and between 40 and 120 feet deep in the Gulf. But each specific location presents unique conditions, Smith said. When fishing on breaks in the Gulf next to drop-offs, team members have lowered their bait into the abyss as far as 250 feet below the surface.

Like their freshwater counterparts, pro saltwater anglers must decipher the code of what the sought-after fish will find appetizing on a given tournament day. Smith said there is a variety of things an angler may tie onto a line to entice a kingfish strike, but usually it will be live baitfish common to the area being fished. Unlike most freshwater fishermen, however, Team Wal-Mart members typically round up their own baitfish in 12- to 14-foot cast nets before attempting to catch a tournament-worthy king.

Blue runners, also known as hardtails, are captured early in the morning prior to takeoff and kept in bait pens for the day’s voyage when Team Wal-Mart is fishing in the Gulf. The oily baitfish menhaden, known locally as pogies, are either netted by the team or purchased from bait shops when they are competing on the East Coast. Ribbonfish that are caught and then frozen in a brine solution for later use serve as secondary bait for Team Wal-Mart.

Smith said they “fish with very, very small hooks” and will usually attach between one and three baitfish to a rig. Team Wal-Mart boats carry both large sea-fishing rods handled freely by anglers and mounted downriggers for deeper fishing. Rods are equipped with reels that spool anywhere from 300 to 450 yards worth of 15- to 20-pound-test line.

“A 40- to 50-pound kingfish can run that reel in just a matter of seconds,” Smith said.

The fight with each fish is slightly different, he said. Some kingfish will run with the bait, and the boat has to be maneuvered toward the potential catch while an angler reels in the line. Some take the bait deep below the boat and “you have to finesse the fish up,” Smith said. The fight can last between five minutes and an hour, with the average battle lasting about 15 minutes.

Though the five boats of Team Wal-Mart technically are competing as individual entities, Smith said the various crews maintain radio contact on the water to help each other locate fish and to augment the odds of any one team cruising into the winner’s circle.

“We’ll sacrifice a fish or an area we have … for the better chance of one boat excelling,” he said.

Since the Team Wal-Mart crews hail from different locations and fish separately in regional competitions, each team brings “expertise and local knowledge when we visit these areas for the pro tournaments,” Smith said. The crews convene at the same hotel for Pro Tour events so they can discuss strategies.

“We put our heads together and decide where we’re going to fish and come up with a game plan for the tournament,” he said.

Smith said Team Wal-Mart is almost as proud of its diversity as it is of its winning record. Among its members are males and females ranging nearly every age group. Wal-Mart hangs its sponsorship hat on fishing being a family-friendly sport, and Team Wal-Mart’s roster represents a real-life example of this with brothers, fathers, sons and daughters fishing alongside each other.

“We’ve got some of every age and division in the Wal-Mart boats,” Smith said.

Team Wal-Mart members represent their teams and sponsors on land as well as on the water. Smith said they make appearances at local Wal-Marts during tournaments to give autographs and talk to the public about their adventures at sea. Team Wal-Mart’s presence is visible at many local parades and other kinds of public events. Smith said several of the team’s anglers also devote time to charitable causes, including fishing tournaments for children with special needs. Some involve the pro anglers taking participants out on their boats for rides, driving lessons, fishing and fun in general. Smith said some members volunteer at other tournaments where they help children catch fish in aboveground pools.

Although many members of Team Wal-Mart fish competitively year-round, the SKA’s Yamaha Pro Tour season kicks off in April and lasts until the championship, which is usually held in November.

With his sights set on another championship bid, Smith said: “We just got through our first year with Wal-Mart, and we’re very pleased with the sponsorship. We’re looking forward to another successful year.”

2002 Team Wal-Mart Boat Crews

Wild Turkey
Team members: Captain Rick Smith, Nikki Smith, Tony Thaw, Tray Tate, Carl Alexander
Boat: 35-foot Wellcraft Scarab Sport Open, fully rigged and specially designed
Home state: Georgia
Competitive highlights: 2002 – 22nd place overall in Pro Tour standings; 1996 – SKA Angler of the Year; five-time winner of the Two Way Rodeo Event; first at the Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament and the Tournament Fisherman’s Championship; 2000 – fourth overall in Pro Tour standings; qualified for all SKA National Championship events since inception; 1999-2001 – one top-five, two top-10 and six top-20 finishes as well as being a past winner and runner-up of SKA’s Division 5

Whopper Stopper
Team members: Captain Conrad Lau, Chelsea Lau, Nelson Railey, co-captain Patsy Stancil
Boat: 32-foot Wellcraft Scarab Sport Open, fully rigged and specially designed
Home state: Florida
Competitive highlights: 2002 – 26th place overall in Pro Tour standings; 2002 – Chelsea Lau won Angler of the Year in the Junior Division; 2001 – second in Junior Angler Ft. Pierce and Canaveral Kingfish Classic tournaments; ninth in Kingbuster Tournament; 12th in Century/Cobia Pro; 15th in SKA Division 10 South Florida Divisional, second in the Junior Division; qualified for all SKA National Championship events since inception; 1999-2001 – one top-five, two top-10 and six top-20 finishes; 2001 – 12th at Kingmaster Invitational

Attitude Adjuster
Team members: Captain David Murphy, Jim Davis, Randan Frazier, Robert Townsend, Kevin Murphy
Boat: 35-foot Wellcraft Scarab Sport Open, fully rigged and specially designed
Home state: North Carolina
Competitive highlights: 2002 – 20th overall in Pro Tour standings; 1993 – SKA National Champion (Jim Davis); 1998 SKA Junior Angler of the Year (Kevin Murphy); 2000 – runner-up Angler of the Year, first at Georgetown, Kingsting and SKA National Championship tournaments with a second-place finish in the overall standings; 2001 – first at two-day aggregate weight Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament

Team Free Spool
Team members: Captain Johnny Gay, Lee Patch, Bruce Woodward Jr., Robert Barfield, Jim Ross, Tim Imka
Boat: 32-foot Wellcraft Scarab Sport Open, fully rigged and specially designed
Home state: Florida
Competitive highlights: 2002 – 19th overall in Pro Tour standings; 1999 – SKA National Championship winner for 23-feet and smaller boat category; 2000 – second at Daytona Striking Fish Tournament; 2001 – 15th at King Master 100, open only to top 100 boats; 1994-2001 – 15 top-five and three top-20 finishes

Fish Fever
Team members: Captain Ed Mecchella, co-captain Shawn Mecchella, Fred Hoyt, Jim Conway
Boat: 32-foot Wellcraft Scarab Sport Open, fully rigged and specially designed
Home state: Georgia
Competitive highlights: 2002 – SKA National Championship winners, Angler of the Year (Ed Mecchella) and first in overall SKA Pro Tour standings; 2000 – first overall standings for SKA’s Division 10; 2000-2001 second at World Pro Nationals; 2001 – sixth overall in SKA Pro Tour standings; 11-time National Tournament qualifiers; 1998-2001 – 15 top-five and three top-20 finishes