FLW Kingfish Series - South Carolina/Georgia
Beaufort (June 24-24, 2006)
BEAUFORT, S.C. — Team Reel Justice, headed by Capt. Ralph Justice of Pawleys Island, S.C., caught a kingfish weighing 37 pounds, 13 ounces to win the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series South Carolina-Georgia Division event in Beaufort, S.C., and $21,000 cash, including a $9,000 Yamaha contingency bonus.
Justice fished with his sons Brian and Andrew Justice and family friend Christopher Campbell, also of Pawleys Island. They ran 20 miles offshore of Edisto Beach, S.C., and targeted live bottom in 60 feet of water. The winners had located the structure in a previous tournament and found favorable conditions Saturday.
“We had fished the spot a year or two ago and we thought that there might be a good fish there,” Ralph Justice said. “We had an east wind and that blew in some pretty water. Also, there were a lot of baitfish suspended in the water and some birds working so we thought that it looked like a good area.”
Saturday started rough with 4-foot seas that dropped to about 2 feet in the afternoon. A strong bite started around 2 o’clock and the winning fish ate a slow-trolled live menhaden at 2:20 p.m. Brian fought the fish for 20 minutes and Andrew gaffed it.
“We got nervous when we saw the size of the fish,” Ralph Justice said. “We use small hooks, so you can’t put a lot of pressure on the fish and horse it in. He took us around the boat several times.”
Rounding out the top five teams were Team Eren’s Addiction Too, captained by Jack Bracewell of Summerville, S.C. (32 pounds, 9 ounces, $9,450 including Yamaha bonus); Team Tideline, captained by Dieter Cardwell of Winston-Salem, N.C. (32 pounds, 7 ounces, $8,550 including Wellcraft and Yamaha bonuses); Team Keller Williams Realty Beaufort, captained by Lee Gray of Beaufort, S.C. (32 pounds, 7 ounces, $3,150); and Team Gotta Go, captained by David Hahn of Bluffton, S.C. (31 pounds, 8 ounces, $1,800).
Teams caught 48 kingfish Saturday weighing a total of 841 pounds, 3 ounces.
FLW Kingfish Series qualifying tournaments are one-day events. The field competes Saturday, and the winning team is determined based on the heaviest kingfish. The next FLW Kingfish Series South Carolina-Georgia Division event will be held Aug. 5 in Charleston, S.C.
The FLW Kingfish Series consists of five divisions – East Florida, West Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina-Georgia and Gulf Coast. Each division is comprised of three events with a $100,000 purse for each event. The top 100 teams – 20 from each division after three qualifying events – will qualify for the three-day, no-entry-fee $300,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series Championship to be held in Orange Beach, Ala., Oct. 26-28. The championship winner will take home as much as $75,000.
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 presented by Abu Garcia, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, 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 exceeding $37.9 million through 249 events in 2006.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, browse 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 world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.
