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Meridian, Miss. – When the Wal Mart FLW Tour made its second stop of the season at Lake Norman near Charlotte, N.C., a familiar face was missing; that was the face of Ken Murphy.
Murphy, from Meridian, Miss., is a single father with a 14-year-old son, and the owner of Construction Dynamics, a company who specializes in the sales and service of machine works and plant relocations. He is a 48-year-old co-angler who has fished every FLW Tour event in six of the past seven years. He has also qualified for four FLW Tour championships.
As an angler, Murphy has seen his share of success in competition, while casting from the back of the boat he has won $93, 399, placed in the top 10 eleven times and won two events. Murphy won the final FLW Tour event of 2007 on the Detroit River en route to his 5th place ranking in the points.
In seven events in 2007 he finished in the top 10 four times, including a 3rd place at the FLW Tour Championship, and he earned $60,500; totals he claims as single season Co-angler records on tour.
“That was an awesome feeling to be able to hold that $40,000 US Bank winner’s card over my head,” Murphy said. “It was truly a dream come true to win a tournament from the back deck.
However, Murphy is more than just a Co-angler.
The Ranger sponsored angler is part of a group who volunteer their time to serve as camera boat operators for FLW and Fox Sports Net after they compete. Leading up to Lake Norman, he had been at each event in the past three seasons, but was taken out of commission by heart bypass surgery the week before the Lake Norman event (where he finished 11th in 2007).
Murphy feels that his service as a camera boat operator is his way of being a part of building an industry. “The sport of fishing is taking off in a big way,” he said. “And by sticking around and helping the cameraman capture the action, I feel like I am a part of helping the machine run.”
He has seen some memorable things in his three year stint as a camera boat driver. “I usually work with Chad Breedlove (an FSN cameraman),” Murphy said. “We were with Brent Ehrler when he won the Tour Championship in 2006, and most recently I was there as Michael Bennett closed out his win at Smith Lake.”
Being privy to so much first hand information is a responsibility he takes seriously. “I have to maintain the secrecy of the game,” he told The BASS ZONE. “Maintaining the integrity of the angler’s patterns is very important, and something I take very seriously.”
Aside from the satisfaction of serving, what he like most about his duties is the fact that he gets a complete perspective of the event. “I get to see the whole tournament unfold, and that is pretty special to me,” he said. “It has also helped me learn a lot as an angler, and that is something I’m grateful for.”
That education is something he will use in trying to accomplish another goal he has set for himself, “I want to graduate to the front deck on the FLW Tour,” he revealed. “I’m sure the things that I’ve learned over the years as a Co-angler and a camera boat operator will help me make that transition.”
“This is a huge part of my life,” he said. “I’ve gotten to fish all over the country, and I’ve met a lot of good people who share similar interests. I sat out in 2005, and it left a huge hole and I had to come back; I love what I do.”
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