COCODRIE, La. – As predicted, anglers had no trouble at all hauling in boatloads of redfish during the opening day of FLW Redfish Series Western competition in Louisiana. In fact, of the 113 two-man teams, only six failed to bring a two-fish limit to the scales. To put things in perspective, the full field came up just 4 ounces short of bringing in exactly 1,400 pounds of fish to Thursday’s weigh-in.
In short, today’s action was literally nothing short of a fishing frenzy.
And capitalizing on the frenzy was the team of Andy Mnichowski of Marrero, La., and John McGill of Slidell, La. Using a two-fish catch of 16 pounds, 8 ounces, the duo struck first blood in the third Western Division Redfish Series event of the season. However, if you think they were completely happy with today’s top catch, you’d be mistaken.
“I’ll tell you what, we’re really sweating things for a while out there. It was a good day, but I really didn’t think we’d finish in first place,” said Mnichowski. “We were catching 17 pounds of fish throughout practice. So, in a lot of ways, we underachieved today. But I think we’ll do better tomorrow.”
Mnichowski’s teammate agreed.
“To be honest with you, we were really disappointed heading back to weigh-in,” said McGill.
However, after landing in first place to start the competition and with plenty of other untouched prime fishing locations in reserve, Mnichowski-McGill should continue to pose problems for the rest of the field throughout the duration of this competition.
“We probably caught between 30 and 40 fish today, with a number of 7-pounders,” said Mnichowski, whose team used a combination of Berkley Gulp Shrimp and Yum Samurai Shad to land the majority of its catch. “Basically we were fishing completely within a 500-yard radius, in about a foot and a half to 3 feet of water. We let all the big spawners go by and just targeted the fish we thought would fit in the (16- to 27-inch) slot limit. We didn’t leave that spot all day.”
So what’s the game plan tomorrow?
“We’re going to go back to that same area and sight-cast for about two hours tomorrow, and then we’ll move on to our other spots,” said Mnichowski. “I think if we can catch at least 16 pounds again tomorrow, we should be close to the cut.”
Culpeppers continue to roll
Fresh off their first-ever FLW Redfish Series win last month at Port Aransas, Texas, the team of Jon and Kris Culpepper picked up right where they left off. Turning in an impressive catch of 16 pounds, 7 ounces, the Culpepper brothers – who both hail from Houston – are also perfectly positioned to make a run at a tournament title as they are currently only 1 ounce out of first place.
“We’re happy with what we did today, but tomorrow is a new day,” Kris Culpepper cautioned. “Louisiana is tough. The weights are so close together that you have to back up what you do each and every day. If we don’t duplicate our strong effort tomorrow, somebody else will – that’s for sure.”
Like everyone else, the Culpeppers said the most important factor is landing those big bites – the 8-plus-pounders.
“There are tons of redfish here, but the key is hooking into the right ones,” said Kris Culpepper, whose team is also sight-fishing, employing a white Berkley 4-inch Gulp bait on a ¼-ounce jighead. “There’s no question, we’ve found the right area. But it all depends on landing those big fish. We could go out there and struggle tomorrow, or we could land two great fish early on. The important thing is to control what you can control. And all we can do is fish as hard and as long as we can. But our goal is to definitely make the top five.”
Best of the rest
The Louisiana team of Gerry Glueck, from River Ridge, and Brent Roy, from Baton Rouge, finished today’s competition in third place with a total catch of 16 pounds, 4 ounces – a mere 4 ounces out of first place.
Two ounces behind, in fourth place, was the team of Brian Kiefer of Dickinson, Texas, and Robert “Alan” Dolezal of Houma, Texas, with a catch of 16 pounds, 2 ounces.
In fifth place, with a total catch of 16 pounds, 1 ounce, was the father-son team of David Nesloney Sr. and David Nesloney Jr., both of Rockport, Texas.
“This place is awesome,” the younger Nesloney said. “But it’ll probably take someone catching 16 pounds, three days in a row to win this.”
To underscore just how close this competition really is, only 7 ounces currently separate the entire five-team leaderboard. That means that tomorrow’s fight for a place in the top-five cut could shape up to be one of the most compelling and competitive redfish events fishing fans have witnessed all season.
Friday’s Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series action at Cocodrie, La., continues at tomorrow’s takeoff, scheduled to take place at 6 a.m. at Coco Marina located at 106 Pier 56 in Cocodrie, La.