TITUSVILLE, Fla. – The last time the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series visited Titusville, Fla., was in August 2005. During that event it took a pair of redfish weighing 14-plus pounds to makes some noise, and 13-pound pairs were common.
This time around, Mosquito Lagoon is not being so benevolent. On Thursday there was just one 13-pound limit hauled in, and only two other pairs topped 12 pounds.
So what’s going on?
Several teams atop the leaderboard contend that the last cold front, which cleared Florida two days ago, was a major front for Sunshine State redfish in May, when redfish are beginning their summer patterns.
High, cool water has kept the bigger redfish from bunching up in strong summer schools, and many think the fish are still spread out all over the flats.
Team after team reported being frustrated by big redfish that ignored their offerings and spooked at the slightest movement.
Normally, in ultratough fishing conditions like these, it’s the local anglers and stealth experts using push poles in tiny, supershallow draft skiffs that reign supreme.
But nobody told that to Jeff Totten of Englewood, Fla., and Ozzie Lessinger of Fort Myers, Fla.
Today, Totten and Lessinger used a 22-foot bay boat, powered by a trolling motor, to sight-fish in Mosquito Lagoon. They weighed in the only 13-pound limit to take the day-one lead in the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series event.
What’s more, neither team member has much previous experience in Mosquito Lagoon.
“Jeff’s been here once before, and I’ve never been here at all,” said Lessinger, who along with Totten, finished third at the Englewood, Fla., Redfish Series event in March. “We got here Tuesday night after rolling our boat off the trailer in an accident. We don’t have a lot of experience here, and the best way to describe our day is lucky, real lucky.”
Since the team doesn’t have a lot of history in Titusville, they have been forced to fish what little water they do know over and over again.
“We’re just grinding it out in three little areas,” Totten said. “What made the difference for us today was getting the big fish we saw to bite. I know a lot of guys that looked at 13 or 14 pounds today and just could not get them to eat. The two big ones we saw just happened to eat.”
Locals Fuller, Dill second
Though Totten and Lessinger lead, you don’t have to look too far down the list to
find locals – like those of Wayne Fuller and Aaron Dill, both of nearby New Smyrna Beach, Fla.
Fuller-Dill sits in second with two redfish for 12 pounds, 3 ounces.
The two local anglers have been following a school of reds for about a week and are starting to learn their habits.
“There’s more to it than just finding fish here,” Dill said. “Once you find them, you have to kind of study them to see where they go, what they do and when they eat. Today, we put more pieces of the puzzle together than we have all week.”
Fuller noted that the water has finally begun to fall, and that is starting to position the fish again.
“As the water falls, we are starting to see schools gang back up,” Fuller said. “Instead of tiny groups of three and four fish being scattered all over the flats, they are getting back together in bigger groups, and I think that will continue to happen as long as the water falls.”
Bait change works for Dudley-Harrell
Dallas Dudley of St. Cloud, Fla., and Shawn Harrell of Bartow, Fla., are in third with 12 pounds, 1 ounce.
Like many teams, Dudley and Harrell dealt with the frustration of watching redfish get picky with their offerings until they switched baits at about 10 o’ clock this morning.
“The fish would rush our baits, but they wouldn’t commit to them and eat,” Dudley recalled. “Then Shawn looked down in the water and noticed some real tiny baitfish. He then suggested we switch to much smaller lures.”
Although the team is not giving up their lure detail this early in the game, both confirmed the bait change help them immensely as they boated four keeper reds after the switch.
Van Horn-Richardson holds down fourth
Ray Van Horn of Tarpon Springs, Fla., and C.A. Richardson of St. Petersburg, Fla., 
are in fourth place with 11 pounds, 14 ounces.
The Florida team went to their strengths today, poling skinny flats and sight-fishing for their catch.
“We saw the right ones today, we just couldn’t get them to eat,” Richardson said. “These fish are as tough as I’ve ever seen them.”
“We literally crawled along this flat,” Van Horn said. “C.A. poled us along at about a foot every 10 minutes. And just when you started to get a headache from staring at the same spot too long, a redfish would come swimming by.”
“Moving very slow, making long casts and using Berkley Gulp were the keys for the big ones we did get to bite,” Richardson added.
Armstrong-Fuller in fifth
Jim Armstrong of Chuluota, Fla., and Dennis Cox of Edgewater, Fla., in fifth with 11 pounds, 7 ounces, encountered perhaps the strangest tale of the day en route to catching their fish.
“Jim hooked a nice trout,” Cox recounted. “And as he was reeling it in, the trout was mobbed by a school of big redfish. Two of the biggest redfish were literally attacking and biting the poor trout, and two other redfish were flanking the whole melee waiting for their turn. Those reds killed that trout before he could get it in.”
“Once the school was incited, we just staked up right there and started catching one redfish after another,” Armstrong continued. “It was one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen.”
Day-two action of the FLW Redfish Series in Titusville begins at 6:30 a.m. at Sand Point Park.