TITUSVILLE, Fla. – For rocket scientists and space buffs, Titusville, Fla., means Cape Canaveral, NASA and the John F. Kennedy Space Center. But for Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series anglers and inshore-flats enthusiasts, Titusville means the Indian River, Mosquito Lagoon and miles of premium flats fishing.
This morning, 150 redfish teams launched their crafts into the Indian River, within sight of the Kennedy Space Center, to begin the third FLW Redfish Series Eastern event of 2006.
Based on their recent practice, last year’s Titusville Redfish Series winners, Mike Laramy of Tampa, Fla., and Scott Hughes of Punta Gorda, Fla., say a repeat win is going to be difficult this year.
Laramy and Hughes won in August 2005 by poling across a superskinny flat for several hundred yards and intercepting twins and triplets of unpressured reds that were making their way onto the flat to feed on a rising tide.
“The water has been fluctuating a lot recently,” Laramy said. “I came here a couple of weeks ago, and it was so shallow, I couldn’t even pole back into our hot spot from last year. Now the water has come way up – it’s almost a foot higher than last year – and you can almost run in there now.”
But it doesn’t matter, because the spot is not holding the quality fish that it did last year.
“We’re working a totally different game plan this year,” Hughes said. “We’ve found some new groups of fish, but making them bite is as tough as I’ve ever seen it here. They just won’t eat, and we haven’t had time to study these fish long enough to really understand what they’re doing and when they’ll eat.”
Accounts of just how high the water is and what made it rise varies from angler to angler, but a general consensus is that the level is some 8 to 10 inches above normal and that abnormal winds have backed the waters up in Mosquito Lagoon and the Indian River.
Exactly what kind of impact these conditions will have on the Space Coast’s redfish will come to light in the following days.
Some believe the fish will move very shallow with the higher water; others think the higher, much cooler water has a majority of the baitfish still out over deeper haunts, and the reds have followed suit.
Many anglers have reported seeing plenty of redfish schools, though most are smaller fish in the 3- to 5-pound class.
“In order to win, I still think it’s going to take a plan similar to what we did last year,” Laramy said. “You’ve got to find out-of-the-way sight-fish – fish that no one has fooled with – in real remote locations. You don’t need a real big school of fish, but you have to know their daily habits and migrations pretty well in order to make them bite.”
Logistics
Redfish Series anglers will take off at 6:30 a.m. Eastern each morning from Sand Point Park, 101 N. Washington Ave. in Titusville. Weigh-ins on day one and day two will be held at the park beginning at 3 p.m. Day three’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 3175 Cheney Highway, Titusville, at 4 p.m.
The full field will compete Thursday and Friday, and the top five teams, based on heaviest accumulated weight from the first two days, will compete on Saturday. Two redfish may be weighed in per team, per day. The winning team will be determined by the heaviest combined weight from Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The winning team earns $25,000 cash, based on a full field. If a member of the winning team is the original owner of a Ranger, Champion, Wellcraft or Hydra-Sports boat that is used during the tournament, the team will also receive a $12,500 bonus. Additionally, if a member of the winning team is the original owner of a qualifying Yamaha outboard that is used during the tournament, the team receives a $12,500 bonus from Yamaha for total award of $50,000.
Thursday’s conditions
Sunrise: 6:31
Temperature at takeoff: 60 degrees
Water temperature: mid-70s
Expected high temperature: 86 degrees
Wind: W at 10 to 15 mph
Day’s outlook: sunny and mild