One for the records
Ramzinsky-Adams dominate FLW Redfish Series at Rockport with almost 50 pounds
ROCKPORT, Texas – There was little doubt about who would win the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series tournament at Rockport Saturday. The only question was: By how much?
Tommy Ramzinsky of Fulton, Texas, and Todd Adams of Rockport stamped an exclamation point on a standout week of redfishing by catching yet another fantastic pair of fish today and pounding home a $50,000 win. In Saturday’s finals, they brought in another 15 pounds, 3 ounces and finished with total of 49 pounds, 9 ounces for the week, breaking the three-day weight record for competitive redfishing.
To be honest, this one was pretty much over on Thursday when Ramzinsky and Adams stunned fellow competitors with their day-one limit of 17 pounds, 6 ounces, which established a new FLW Redfish Series one-day record. When they came in Friday with another big, 17-pound limit – unofficially, the third-heaviest FLW Redfish limit – the fat lady hadn’t sung yet, but she cleared her throat loud enough for everyone from Galveston to South Padre Island to hear her.
As they mounted the sunny weigh-in stage Saturday afternoon to the cheers of a wildly enthusiastic hometown crowd, all they needed was 14 pounds, 1 ounce to break the three-day record. They produced 15-3, and the rest is history.
“This is unbelievable,” Ramzinsky said. “It’s kind of hard to explain how it feels. To win at home and to break the record, it’s special. I’m really proud of it.”
The small irony of the day was that the winners hardly did any fishing Saturday. This morning, they ran straight back up to their muddy little flat in San Antonio Bay, caught their two keepers quick and came right back in to Rockport to wait for weigh-in.
“We caught a 28 1/2-incher in the first five casts,” Ramzinsky said. (They released that one due to the 20- to 28-inch slot limit.) “After that, all the pressure kind of went off us because we knew there were still fish there. Then we caught those two 27-inchers, had our 15 pounds, and we were back in by 8:30. We didn’t want to have any boat problems or anything else, so we packed it up and came in.”
The winners said they changed little, strategy-wise, throughout the week even though conditions, especially the wind, moved around somewhat from day to day. They had an area of mud- and shell-bottom flats that that kept coughing up big redfish to their main weapon, a dark-colored D.O.A. Shad Tail on a bullet-head jig.
“Actually, our backup spot turned out to be our big-fish spot,” said Adams, who estimated that they caught between 40 and 45 reds this week. “We tried throwing topwaters the first day, but we couldn’t’ get anything to sniff at them.”
“We found these fish about two weeks ago. We knew they were big, but we didn’t know they were that big because we didn’t catch any of them until the tournament,” said Ramzinsky, who is a local guide. “It’s just one 20-yard little stretch in an area where we’ve all caught fish, but I’ve never caught fish in this stretch before. It seemed like they just wanted to pull up in this one little trough and eat.”
Today, the fish had a little less to eat since Ramzinsky and Adams left the hole early. But no matter. Thanks to the $25,000 winner’s check plus $12,500 in contingency money from Ranger Boats and another $12,500 from Yamaha, they proved that less can certainly be more.
“If I’d have known about that record, we probably would have stayed out there and caught a few more to try and cull some out,” Ramzinsky said. “But even with that kind of stringer, 15 pounds, it’s still awesome.”
With this win, Ramzinsky and Adams have won a total of $125,000 in the last two tournaments they’ve fished. Last October, they won $75,000 in the inaugural FLW Redfish Series Championship in Orange Beach, Ala. In fact, Team Ramzinsky-Adams has led the field in five of the last six days in which they’ve competed on the FLW Redfish circuit.
Everyone holds position, Team Walter lands second
Muscling through the shifting winds and posting a 12-pound, 1-ounce limit Saturday were Darrell and Robert Walter of Rockport. They held on and finished the tournament in second place with a hefty final weight of 42 pounds, 15 ounces. They earned $9,600 in winnings and Yamaha money.
“We’re really happy because that’s what we were trying to do,” Darrell Walter said about the runner-up finish.
The Walters fished a creek bend, throwing Berkley Gulp shrimp at reds that gathered on the windward bank of Cavasso Creek in St. Charles Bay. Today, the wind changed direction back to the southeast, but they still were able to catch them early.
“We caught our fish within the first 30 minutes,” Robert Walter said. “There was a lot more wind this morning.”
Snopek-Watts milk run to third
Steve Snopek of New Braunfels, Texas, and Glen Watts of Corpus Christi, Texas, also topped the vaunted 40-pound mark for the week. They finished in third place with a total weight of 41 pounds, 4 ounces and earned $5,474 in winnings and Yamaha money.
“We had a number of areas,” said Watts, who threw plastics and jerkbaits near Port Aransas most of the week. “We’re what I like to call `power fishermen.’ We had a little milk run where we ran back and forth, hoping we were there when the big fish like to eat.”
Koliba-Shimek fourth
Kurt Koliba of Port Lavaca, Texas, and Michael Shimek of Bay City, Texas, finished in fourth place with a three-day weight of 39 pounds, 10 ounces. They earned $4,474 in winnings and Yamaha money.
Koliba and Shimek caught their fish in a backwater marsh area on spoons, topwaters and Killer flats minnows.
Alexander-Thompson grab fifth on bass baits
James Alexander and Kenny Thompson, both of Aransas Pass, Texas, finished with 36 pounds, 4 ounces and placed fifth. They earned $3,150 in winnings.
The duo fished the Port Aransas area and focused on deeper rocks. In a bit of a unique twist, they caught most of their redfish on bass baits: spinnerbaits and Bomber Flat A crankbaits.
“We had a very hard time finding big fish in the flats, so we moved out to the rocks in deeper water and caught some bigger fish,” Thompson said.
“We caught most of our big fish on the Bomber crankbait,” Alexander said.
Coming up
The next Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series event is an Eastern Division tournament to be held at Englewood, Fla., Mar. 30-April 1.
The next Western Division event will be held at Port Aransas, Texas, May 4-6.