The 2007 Maverick Boats Flatsmasters Series Championship is considered by many as “The Super 
Bowl of Backcountry Fishing”. Teams from around 
Florida come to Punta Gorda to compete in the largest backcountry tournament series in the nation.

Over 125 different teams competed in the four regular season events. The top 50 teams after those four events are invited to the prestigious Flatsmasters Champion-
ship where each team starts at zero again. The top fifty teams fish on Saturday with the top five teams from Saturday, competing head to head on Sunday, one last day, to determine who will be the 2007 Flatsmasters Champions.

Saturday morning anglers were treated to our annual Championship Breakfast provided by Harpoon Harry’s. 

The mood was almost reflective as teams sat down to breakfast hoping the day would turn out the right way for them. Additional pressure was felt by all teams as the 
first cool front of the year had dropped temperatures by about ten degrees on tournament morning and a brisk northeast breeze was blowing.

7:10am- boat #1 – Team Screenprint Plus (2007 Team 
of The Year) was released followed quickly by the rest of the field. The scales opened at 1:30pm, but the first boat to weigh in was at 2:25pm when Team Seacoast Supply put up 13.09lbs to get the show started, 20 minutes later, Jeff Totten and Team Aquascapes Pool & Design weighed 14.30lbs. After 3:00pm the teams steadily hit the scales with notable weights from Team Waterproof Charts 
(Landry Jr., Whitbread, McGuire)– 15.65lbs. And Team Big Dawg Charters (Sanders, Dooley, Barnhill) at 15.26lbs. In all 30 teams weighed in on Saturday with 13 snook and 29 redfish caught.

Top Five Teams from Saturday

1. Team Waterproof Charts (John Landry Jr., Andy Whitbread, 
Cory McGuire) –15.65lbs

2. Team Big Dawg Charters (Sanders, Dooley, Barnhill) –    15.26lbs

3. Team Aquascapes Design (Totten, Lessenger, Wise) -    14.30lbs

4. Team Gator Petroleum (Tucker, Finnell, Swartz) -     13.25lbs

5. Team Paul Lambert Construction (Lambert, Lambert, Varney)-   13.25lbs

“The 2007 Maverick Boats Flatsmasters Series Finalists”

Day 2- Top Five Shootout

Making The Top Five Shootout is a huge accomplishment for any Flatsmasters team, but making The Championship Shootout is the pinnacle of backcountry fishing. The five teams that made the cut all have plenty of experience fishing Charlotte Harbor. Our teams come from Cape Coral, Ft Myers, Englewood , Polk County, and Punta Gorda. Sunday morning all five teams lined up for the final start of the year, one last chance to catch a red and a snook to bring back to the Flatsmasters Scales. As the crowd grew at Harpoon Harry’s, the anticipation also grew as everyone wondered who was going to have what it takes to become Flatsmasters Champions!

“Team Aquascapes pulls their snook from the well”

At 3:30pm, all five teams were assembled at the Harpoon Harry’s dock ready for the shootout.

Round one was the redfish, each team weighs their 
redfish first, then round #2 is the snook round where teams can make or break their chances at stardom. All the teams but one had their redfish with Team Aquascapes Design jumping out to an early lead with a 6.39lb red. The lightest red was Team Waterproof Charts with 4.92lbs. The Snook round went fast as the first three teams were missing their linesider.

“Will Team Waterproof Charts Snook be big Enough?”

When Jeff Totten and his Aquascapes Team pulled a 8.02lb snook out of their well, they put all the pressure on 19 year old John Landry Jr. and his Waterproof Charts Team. They needed a 9.50 lb snook to win. After a quick struggle in the livewell, Team Waterproof Charts weighed 
a 9.97lb snook for a total weight of 14.89 lbs and the title of 2007 Maverick Boats Flatsmasters Champions!!!