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Fantasy Fishing finally taking off Saturday, Jul 19, 2008 By Joe Mosby For the second time in two months, a fishing fantasy has brought $100,000 to an Arkansan. Shellee Holyoak Kuykendall of Cabot is the latest to receive the big prize. She follows Joe Collins of Rogers, who won $100,000 in May. And just what is fantasy fishing that pays these huge prizes? It's an operation of FLW Outdoors and is built around the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, one of bass fishing's two major leagues. The FLW Tour has six tournaments preceding the August Forrest L. Wood Cup for the top point winners of the season. In FLW Fantasy Fishing, contestants predict the 10 professional competitors they think will place high in one of the FLW Tour tournaments. Kuykendall and Collins both nailed the winner correctly, Kuykendall in the recent Chevy Open tournament on the Detroit River in Detroit, Mich., and Collins in the Wal-Mart Open at Beaver Lake in May. Kuykendall, who is 35, said that when she brought up fantasy fishing among her friends, they laughed and thought it was silly to play. Now, Kuykendall is laughing all the way to bank. Another Arkansas resident, Suzanne McLean of Crossett, won a $2,500 U.S. Savings Bond for third place in the same tournament as Kuykendall. "I'm stunned. I can't believe it. This is all so crazy," said Kuykendall. "Our friends and family won't believe it. They know what fantasy football is, but they think fantasy fishing is silly. I think it's going to catch on now." A professional artist who currently is taking time off to raise her two sons, Kamden, 5, and Konlin, 1, Kuykendall was drawn into playing FLW Fantasy Fishing by her husband, Kurtis, who is on the staff at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. Kurtis Kuykendall is an avid angler and has played other fantasy sports in the past. The couple moved last October from the Salt Lake City area for Kurtis Kuykendall to take his job with the hospital. Shellee Kuykendall and her husband entered all six tournaments this year. Like fantasy football, but with fish, she picked 10 professional bass anglers who participated in the Chevy Open. She is now in 1,678th place overall with 14,887 points in the FLW Fantasy Fishing tournament, and is in the running for a $1 million grand prize, which will be awarded to the fantasy fishing player who accumulates the most points over the seven- tournament season, which concludes in mid-August. While she loves fishing for trout in Utah, Shellee Kuykendall confessed that she has never caught a bass. "I hope that doesn't disqualify me," she said. She plans to use some of her winnings to pay down the couple's mortgage and to buy some art supplies so she can continue her love of painting landscapes and portraits. Using a laptop computer rather than a rod and reel, Shellee Kuykendall entered the fantasy fishing game online, selecting 10 pro bass anglers from among the 200 pro anglers who participate in the Wal-Mart FLW Tour. She earned points based on the real, on-the-water performance of the pro bass anglers who fished the Chevy Open at Detroit. The Chevy Open was won by bass pro Alvin Shaw of State Road, N.C. Shaw had a total catch of 39 pounds, 11 ounces, in the final two days of the competition to win a cash prize of $200,000. She not only picked Shaw for her fantasy fishing team, but also picked him to win the tournament, an exacta, which earned her bonus points. Based on the performance of her fantasy fishing team over the four-day tournament, Shellee Kuykendall accumulated 8,548 points. Her fantasy fishing team included: 1. Alvin Shaw 2. Andy Morgan 3. David Walker 4. Kim Stricker 5. Gary Yamamoto 6. Tom Monsoor 7. Sam Newby 8. Kyle Mabrey 9. Jason McKinnie 10. Scott Canterbury The FLW Fantasy Fishing tournament series now moves to its final tournament, the Forrest Wood Cup, scheduled in August in Columbia, S.C. In this last tournament, FLW Fantasy Fishing offers triple bonus points, creating a climatic finale for the seven-tournament season. Based on the results of the Forrest Wood Cup, not only will another player win $100,000 for winning the seventh tournament, one player will be awarded a guaranteed $1 million by accumulating the most points over the entire FLW Fantasy Fishing season. FLW Fantasy Fishing is free to play and is open to adults, ages 18 and up, throughout the world, wherever it is legal to play. Participants log onto www.fantasyfishing.com and register to enter the game. Players can sign up any time during the season, up until Aug. 13, the day before the Forrest Wood Cup championship begins. ------- On the Net: www.fantasyfishing.com -------- Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas' best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com. |
