ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – Thursday morning, 82 redfish teams blasted off from Zeke’s Marina on Cotton Bayou to begin FLW Outdoors’ first Wal-Mart Redfish Series Championship. The top 50 teams from both the Western and Eastern divisions have been invited to the no-entry-fee event, which will award a potential $100,000 to the winner.
The fact that the Championship field is 18 teams short this week is yet another stark reminder of the storm-wracked season the inaugural Redfish Series has endured this year. Major hurricanes have forced the relocation of several events, including this very championship, which was originally slated for Mobile, Ala. Unfortunately, with the recent landfall of Wilma in South Florida, several Florida-based teams were unable to attend the Redfish Series Championship.
So as the championship got under way this morning, many competitors were just happy to have a stretch of Gulf Coast to fish without the impending danger of another tropical storm system. The seemingly rare forecast of sunny skies and light winds didn’t hurt things either.
With such favorable conditions, many teams are eyeing long runs to the east or west for this event.
“You can go 150 miles either way,” said Greg Watts, who won the Redfish Series points title in the Eastern Division along with his brother, Bryan
Watts. “Some teams are going to Florida; others will go all the way to Mississippi. Bryan and I are looking at either a 60-mile run one way, or a 120-mile run the other way.”
Since the championship does not award points for year-end standings, most teams are in a winner-take-all mode.
“There’s no point in playing it conservative here,” Watts added. “You could probably stay close and catch a couple of small keepers a day, but it won’t do you any good. That’s why so many teams will be making long runs to places they feel like they can win.”
Another reason teams will be swinging for the fences here is because the Redfish Series Championship is a cumulative-weight event. All teams will fish Thursday and Friday, and the top 10 will advance to the final round on Saturday. Instead of starting from zero on the final day (as many FLW Outdoors bass events do), Saturday’s weight will be added to the cumulative weight from the first two days to determine the winner.
The winners will pocket a guaranteed $50,000 from FLW Outdoors as well as an additional $25,000 from Ranger and $25,000 from Yamaha if they are qualified for those incentives. A fully qualified team stands to earn $100,000, one of the richest payoffs in competitive redfishing history.
One of the strong favorites in the championship field is the Castrol team of Arthur Price and Mike Tindal. Tindal is from Mobile, Ala., and has spent 40 years fishing Mobile Bay, located about 30 minutes from the takeoff point in Orange Beach.
“Reds on this stretch of coast tend to relate much deeper than in other parts of the Gulf Coast,” Tindal said. “Mobile Bay is filled with underwater shell bars in 6 to 10 feet of water, and that’s where the redfish live. It’s not like the shallow, clearwater flats of Florida or the backwater ponds of Louisiana. It’s more like tidal-water bass fishing on the Potomac River. I’ve caught reds as deep as 10 feet this week.”
Greg Watts agrees that this particular stretch of Gulf Coast is more suited for power fishing rather than sight-casting.
“There are some back marshes and bays where you could sight-fish, but that type of terrain is not as common here,” Watts said. “These reds seem to be more structure oriented – docks, pilings, jetties, bridges and underwater shell bars. One of the better redfish lures in this part of the Gulf is a crankbait. You want something that will get down there about 5 to 6 feet.”
While Tindal and Price will be heading west to Mobile, the Chevy team of Greg and Bill Devault will be running 75 miles east to Florida.
Those teams choosing to fish in Florida will have to abide by Florida’s no-cull rule: Once a fish goes into the livewell, it cannot be culled out for a bigger fish. Also, all anglers will have to adhere to Alabama’s 16- to 26-inch slot limit no matter where they fish. So if an angler catches a 26 1/2-inch fish in Florida (a legal keeper under Florida’s 18- to 27-inch slot law), it must be released because it’s too big under Alabama’s guidelines.
“Going to Florida is a dicey game,” Greg Devault admitted. “Once you put one in the box, it’s yours. We’ve decided that 5 pounds will be our mark. Anything over 5 pounds goes in the well, anything under 5 pounds gets released.”
Most teams agree that the 20- to 21-pound range will be the mark to hit to make the top 10 on Saturday.
The day-one weigh-in begins at 3 p.m. Central today at Zeke’s Marina in Orange Beach.
Thursday’s conditions
Sunrise: 7:01 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 54 degrees
Expected high temperature: 72 degrees
Water temperature: 68-71 degree
Forecasted winds: NNE at 5 to 10 mph
Day’s outlook: mostly sunny