One-hour show to highlight $300,000 king mackerel tournament
Tune in Sunday, Sept. 9 to “FLW Outdoors” on FSN for the $300,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour event held in Fort Pierce, Fla. The second event of the $1.7 million FLW Kingfish Tour season concludes with the winning team claiming a cash prize of $100,000.
The “FLW Outdoors” saltwater series is a reality-format show told from the anglers’ perspective. Each week the top-five finalists are followed from takeoff to weigh-in, allowing the audience to feel the anglers’ nerves, listen to their strategy and learn from their mistakes. The stories evolve and the suspense grows throughout the one-hour show until the final weigh-in results are announced.
FLW Kingfish Tour qualifying tournaments are three-day events. The entire field competes on day one and day two and the top five teams compete on day three. The winning team is determined based on the heaviest kingfish from day one or day two plus the heaviest kingfish from day three.
After two days of competition, the leaderboard is tight, with five North Carolina teams within 2 pounds of each other. Despite the dismal weather, the kingfishing has been good along the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. While no fish broke the vaunted 50-pound barrier, roughly 20 fish came in at over 40 pounds and countless 30-pounders crossed the scale. Sharing the lead heading into the final day is Team BP / Talkin’ Trash and Team Miss Micki 2, who each caught a king mackerel during the opening round that weighed 47 pounds, 1 ounce. Led by Capt. Ricky Rowland of Fuquay Varina, N.C., Miss Micki 2 caught their fish on day one among a group of boats past Sebastian Inlet on a blue runner. Team BP / Talkin’ Trash, captained by Mike Edwards of Wilmington, N.C., managed their biggest fish on day two in a community hole 35 miles north of Fort Pierce Inlet. Unlike most teams who have opted for blue runners, Team BP / Talkin’ Trash is catching most of their kings on ribbonfish.
FSN also follows Team M&M’s / Wild Ride, which is captained by Randy Griffin Jr. of Hampstead, N.C. On day two, the veteran team boated a 46-pound, 2-ounce kingfish on the north beach of Sebastian Inlet and made the cutoff in fourth place. This is Griffin’s third trip to the five-boat finals in FLW Kingfish Tour competition. Tune in to see if they can capture the $100,000 first-place purse.
Also in contention is Team Bounty, led by Capt. Tom Aberle of Wilmington, N.C. Buoyed by a 45-pound, 9-ounce mackerel caught on day one, Aberle and his crew have secured the fourth top-five finish of their career and are seeking their second Kingfish Tour victory.
FSN is the industry leader in providing the most up-to-date technology in TV production. FSN puts viewers in the boats with the pros, shadowing them from sunrise until the final weigh-in using innovative camera work that gives fishing fans the most intimate viewing experience available.
FSN broadcasts “FLW Outdoors” Sundays from 11 a.m. to noon Eastern time.
FSN is broadcast to more than 81 million homes through its network of 20 regional sports channels. Established in 1996, FSN is the only cable network that supplies national, regional and local sports programming. FSN serves as the cable TV home to 62 of the 82 MLB, NHL and NBA teams based in the United States, and produces more than 4,500 live events each year. FSN has an extensive catalog of original national programs, including “Best Damn Sports Show Period” and “Beyond the Glory” documentary series, along with national packages of collegiate sports. Based in Los Angeles, FSN is part of the vast FOX Sports television family.
“FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to more than 429 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoor-sports television show in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 service men and women stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.
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 presented by Abu Garcia, Ranger Owners Tournament Championship Series, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses of nearly $43 million through 241 events in 2007.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, call (270) 252-1000.
By: Dave Washburn, vp comm, FLW Outdoors
