Hiles had a good two fish aggregate of 95.91 pounds and was sitting in fifteenth place overall in the Division Seven’s Open Class standings.  He fished Division Seven’s Open Class while Beckenstein and Garthwaite fished its Class of 23 on the Johnny B. They too were already qualified for the Nationals.
 
“We made a good run of sixty miles,” explained Garthwaite. “It was an area we were familiar with but it was pretty slow, however we did have a forty in the fish bag. At eleven-thirty we decided to stop and eat.”
 
By this time other boats in the area had left for greener pastures. The trio fixed sandwiches, but while they were feeding, a king decided to do the same thing, only one problem, someone forgot to set the clicker.
 
“I noticed it after half the spool was gone,” said Grathwaite. “I grabbed the rod and rushed to the helm to get the boat turned.”
 
With rod in one hand and the other on the wheel, he got the boat turned while Hiles and Benkenstein quickly got the other lines in the water disposed of.
 
“We were down to an almost empty spool before we got to work, but in twenty minutes Gary stuck the king,” Nick added with a big grin on his face.
 
Hiles chimed in, “I stuck her but when I pulled on her I thought I was hooked to a log. I hollered for John but he was right there and with his help she hit the deck.”
 
The trio returned to the scales at four o’clock and told the dock crew they hoped she was fifty-five. You can only imagine the excitement when weigh master Bob Flocken bellowed out 60.07.
 
There was no doubt of the outcome of the Biloxi Bash after the weight was read. Everyone else was now fishing for second place.
 
But the drama wasn’t over yet. The team from Texas just added sixty more points to the Terminator’s aggregate.
 
Deona Holmes was doing scoring but had the Division standings with her. She went to work, and within a minute announced the Terminator’s three fish aggregate was 155.98 or three pounds better than the Division leader, David VanLent on Truckin Up.
 
An hour later Hiles knew that his sixty pound king just gave him the Division title.
 
It should be noted that this was the fourth sixty-pound king caught this year, but three of those were caught in the upper Gulf. David VanLent caught a 62.74 in late May, then Bennie Goldman Sr. scaled the biggest king of the season, a 64.50 at the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, and now we have the Terminator’s 60.07. Will we see more of these trophy bruisers at the Nationals?
 
All three of the sixty-pound kings were caught on Contender boats.
 
A Class of 23 team, Get Layed, earned second place honors with a 47.56. Fred Watkins Jr., Ken Jansen, Todd Gardner, Sherman “Butch” Smith, and Kayla Williamson, fished in a hundred and twenty feet of water forty-eight miles from the scale.
 
“She ate a hard tail on the surface at eleven o’clock,” said Watkins, who also told us that he fought the fish to the boat then turned the rod over to Butch.
 
“We were fighting another king at the time and bringing lines in when this one hit,” Watkins added.
 
At the scale the Yamaha powered Contender team were very pleased with their 47.56. It was what the team needed to win the Division’s Class of 23.
 
Kayla Williamson was the events Top Junior Angler.
 
Third place went to David VanLent’s Truckin Up team with a 45.59. “We ran over two hundred and fifty miles pre fishing and never saw a fish,” said David after the event was over. “We elected to fish one-hundred miles south in two-hundred feet of water. We fished all day on just two motors.”
 
Marking a thermo cline at sixty-feet, every time the team dropped a bait down they hooked up. At ten o’clock the third place king was on and David skillfully brought her to the boat.
 
David held the number one slot in the standings but after Biloxi dropped to second. David’s team had to be ranked among the best in the country. In 2000 David won his “Angler of the Year” title. Don’t be surprised if this team, Rose VanLent, Jeff Hall, and Mike Ward add a “National Champion’s” title to their resume this year.
 
Rose is a past lady “Angler of the Year,” and took lady honors in this event plus she has also won the Ladies Division this year.
 
Neal Foster caught a 45.25 to earn fourth place fishing Intense.
“We were a hundred and twenty five miles from here,” Neil elaborated after the event was over. “JJ caught her using a hard tail at three o’clock off the downrigger.”
 
JJ is J.J. Tabor who joins Mark and Josh Collier, and Chris Taylor on the Intense team.
 
Neal is a past Division Champion and earned third overall this year.
 
The 2007 Class of 23 National Champions earned another Class win scaling a 40.33. Mitch Mosley and Eric McMichael fishing Lined Out had a great weekend.
 
Sea Hagg rounded out the money slots with a second place finish in the Class of 23.
 
Cecil Capps Jr., Earl and Wesley Burbridge, and Gerry and Landen Rucker scaled a 39.95. “We were fifty-five miles from the scale fishing in one-hundred feet of water off Dauphin Island,” said Capps. “When she hit, Wesley said it was a shark and passed the rod to Landen.” Landen is the team’s junior angler and he did what is required of him getting the king to the boat. For that effort he won second place SKA junior angler.
 
All six boats in the money in this event were Contenders. All ran Yamahas except Mosley who runs Mercurys
 
Once again the SKA and the teams fishing the Biloxi Bash thank Keith Crosby and his staff at the Palace Casino Resort for their hospitality. He also announced that by the first of next year the Palace would begin construction on a new casino.
 
Congratulations to all the participants in Division Seven for another great year.