TEAM HARD WAY WINS WAL-MART FLW KINGFISH TOUR EVENT IN BEAUFORT
8/12/06
BEAUFORT, S.C. (August 12, 2006) - Team Hard Way, captained by Todd Korker of Jupiter, Fla. caught a 2-kingfish total weighing 62 pounds, 3 ounces to win the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour event presented by Yamaha in Beaufort. The $70,000 top prize included a $30,000 bonus from Hydra-Sports.
Fishing a Yamaha-powered 33-foot Hydra-Sports center console, Korker and teammates Marty Koehler and Jeshua Koehler, both of Hopewell Junction, N.Y., and Josh Denton of Melbourne, Fla. worked the Edisto 60 reef, approximately 27 miles northeast of Port Royal Inlet in 60 feet of water. Weighing 17 pounds, 4 ounces, their winning kingfish hit a dead ribbonfish on a break-away rig set about 40 feet deep and 50 feet behind the boat.
"The reason I use break-away rigs instead of downriggers is because I find that kingfish tend to snag on the downrigger cable and baits can tangle around it," Korker said. "I'm an old South Florida swordfisherman, so I find that works best for me."
Team Hardway grabbed the early lead with a 44-pound, 15-ounce kingfish on day one. Korker elected not to fish on Friday and spent the day gathering bait, prepping his boat and networking with other teams. He set a high goal for the final round, but only needed a little over half to win.
"With all these great fishermen out here, I thought we'd need a 30-pound fish to win, but it just didn't work out that way," Korker said. "I didn't know if we had enough to win today. I was on pins and needles all the way until the end of this thing."
Team Hard Way truly had a hard time Saturday, as defective fishing line failed on several hookups. Korker said his team had to strip the top half of each reel's spool and replace the bad monofilament with backup line that the captain fortunately found in his tackle bag.
"We had about eight fish break off today and we had to re-line all the rods while underway just to get a fish in the boat," Korker said. "I know one of the kingfish we lost was in the 30-pound class because we saw it. We had to dig deep to keep going."
Marty Koehler fought the winning kingfish and Denton gaffed it after 25 minutes of anxiety. Korker said his team can normally boat a 17-pound kingfish in about 10 minutes. But with weak line occupying half of the spool, Koehler had to work with a light drag setting and finesse the fish to the boat.
Rounding out the top five teams were Team Cat Daddy/LoungAir captained by Danny Mathis of Gonzalez, La. (53 pounds, $17,000 plus $9,000 Hydra-Sports bonus and $9,000 Yamaha bonus); Team Salty Dog captained by Jeff Osborne of St. Augustine, Fla. (38 pounds, 3 ounces, $10,000 plus $5,250 Wellcraft bonus and $5,250 Yamaha bonus); Team Castrol/Royal Flush captained by Nick Parrish of Jacksonville, Fla. (35 pounds, 14 ounces, $8,000 plus $4,250 Hydra-Sports bonus and $4,250 Yamaha bonus); and Team Wild Ride captained by Randy Griffin Jr. of Hampstead, N.C. (34 pounds, 11 ounces, $7,000 plus $3,750 Wellcraft bonus and $3,750 Yamaha bonus).
Scattered squalls harassed anglers throughout much of the day, with a heavy storm pounding the coast during the afternoon. Teams caught two kingfish Saturday with a combined weight of 33 pounds, 12 ounces.
FLW Kingfish Tour qualifying tournaments are three-day events. The entire field competes Thursday and Friday and the top five teams compete Saturday. The winning team is determined based on the heaviest kingfish from Thursday or Friday plus the heaviest kingfish from Saturday. The next FLW Kingfish Tour event will be held Sept. 21-23 in Southport, N.C.
The $1.82 million Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour consists of four regular-season events. After four events are complete, the top 50 teams compete in the three-day, no-entry-fee $500,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship to be held in Mount Pleasant, S.C., Nov. 9-11. The championship team will take home as much as $150,000.
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, Stratos Owners' Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $36.9 million through 241 events in 2006.For more information on FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.
Wal-Mart and many of America's largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1997 and today is the title sponsor of all FLW Outdoors events. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.
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Editors: Visit the FLW Outdoors Media Center at http://mc.flwoutdoors.com for additional information and photos.
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