Bostick-Sepe hang on for first Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series win

Patience pays big dividends for top teams in Englewood, Fla.

ENGLEWOOD, Fla. – Andrew Bostick of Marco Island, Fla., will no longer have to wonder if he is ever going to take part in a major-league redfish tournament win. Saturday, he and teammate Mark Sepe of Deland, Fla., took home a pair of trophies for their mantles – and a check for $37,500 to boot – for winning the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Eastern out of Englewood, Fla. with a three-day total of 39 pounds even.

“Finally!” exclaimed Bostick with a sigh of relief. “After a while you really start to wonder if a win is ever going to happen – now it has.”

“We’re ecstatic,” Sepe added. “This is our second event fishing together as a team, and I hope it’s a sign of things to come.”

Whether a win would ever come should have never been a question for these accomplished redfish pros. Bostick has been a redfish guide for nearly two decades, and Sepe has been fishing tournaments for seven years. It was simply a matter of time before the duo – who just joined forces at the beginning of this season – graced the winner’s circle.

To win, Bostick and Sepe continued their bump-schooling technique today with third-place finishers Jeff Totten of Englewood, Fla., and Ozzie Lessinger of Fort Myers, Fla., keeping a large school of redfish hemmed up between a series of three large potholes.

“It worked like a charm again today,” Bostick said. “They staked out one end and we sat down on the other, and we bumped the school back and forth, catching 10 fish during the day.”

The winning team fished an area located about 25 miles away in Pine Island Sound that features a series of deeper potholes and troughs that are known for holding large schools of redfish.

When the fish “hump up” and start running bait, local anglers often get excited and start chasing the schools across the flats. But for Bostick-Sepe and Totten-Lessinger, the feeding fish never tempted them out of their positions

“You just had to sit still and let the fish come back around to you,” Bostick said. “Otherwise you were just chasing ghosts.”

Bostick scored his fish this week on a Berkley Gulp 4-inch shrimp in a root beer color, while Sepe caught his fish on a Mister Twister Exude RT Slug in golden bream color.

Both anglers used Mustad’s Ultrapoint Power-Lock Plus 5/0 hook with a weight on the shaft, and their baits were tied to 10-pound-test Berkley Fireline with a fluorocarbon leader.

Lombard-Symonds race for second

Jarrett Lombard of Port Charlotte, Fla., and Leland Symonds of Punta Gorda, Fla., finished second with a three-day total of 38 pounds, 9 ounces – just 7 ounces off the lead.

Lombard and Symonds essentially raced their way into the finals by beating their competition to a key school of fish each day.

“Four or five other teams knew about the school, but we have a fast boat, and we were able to beat them to it and get first shots at the fish each morning,” said Lombard, who guides out of Punta Gorda. “The key was to catch them early, because once everyone else showed up, it was over.”

The team used MirrOlure 19m suspending twitch baits tied to 20-pound-test Fins braided line in the Pine Island Sound area to catch their fish.

“The 19m is a mullet imitator,” Lombard explained. “We threw it on spinning tackle for longer casts, and then twitched it back to the boat.”

Lombard and Symonds picked up $10,000 for their finish.

Totten-Lessinger move to third

Jeff Totten and Ozzie Lessinger, who worked with Bostick and Sepe to keep several large schools of redfish hemmed up in potholes, also benefited from the teamwork today with the day’s biggest two-fish limit – 13 pounds, 13 ounces – which moved them into third with a three-day total of 38 pounds, 7 ounces worth $6,000.

“Patience was the big key for both teams,” Lessinger said. “We just didn’t move around a bunch like everyone else. Even when we could see reds busting glass minnows on the flats, we’d resist the urge to chase after them and just sit still near the potholes.”

“We had no problems working with Andrew and Mark,” Totten added. “What cost us was day two, when we only had 10 pounds, 11 ounces. We’d been catching close to 14 pounds a day out of there, and we slipped off the pace on day two. If we had caught just 12 pounds on day two, it would have been much different. But our hats are off to Andrew and Mark; they brought them every day and didn’t miss a beat – and that’s what it takes.”

Totten and Lessinger relied on a Berkley Gulp 3-inch shrimp in natural color rigged on an 1/8-ounce Strike King jighead tied to 20-pound-test Suffix braided line with a 25-pound-test fluorocarbon leader on spinning tackle.

Johnson and Hudec finish fourth

Picking up $5,000 for a fourth-place finish was the team of Bo Johnson of Cape Coral, Fla., and Richard Hudec of Naples, Fla., with a three-day total of 33 pounds, 6 ounces.

The team spent the week skipping 4-inch Berkley Gulp shrimp (molting) and 5-inch Gulp jerkbaits (white) under mangrove trees in Pine Island Sound.

“I stayed about 30 feet off the bushes and really skipped it way up under the branches,” Johnson said. “I used 15-pound-test Power Pro braid and a 30-pound-test fluorocarbon leader on a spinning rod. I know that sounds heavy, but you have to beef up your tackle when fishing around those thick trees.”

Bad luck befalls Wiggins-Vandemark

Blair Wiggins of Cocoa, Fla., and Tadd Vandemark of Key Largo, Fla., turned in a goose egg today, finishing fifth with a three-day total of 24 pounds, 12 ounces worth $5,500.

Wiggins and Vandemark were making an 84-mile run into Tampa Bay, and when they got to their primary spot this morning, live bait fishermen had the area covered up.

“By the time we got there, they were already slinging bait (chumming), and rules are rules; we had to leave,” Wiggins lamented.

By FLW Redfish Series rules, tournament anglers cannot fish within 100 yards of other anglers chumming.

“We tried a couple of back-up spots but I think everybody in Tampa Bay had their boats on the water today – which is good, we like to see people out fishing,” he added. “But it was hard just to find an empty stretch of water to fish and we never got anything else going.”