LAFITTE, La. – The 16-pound limits many predicted to roll across the weigh-in stage at the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Western event didn’t quite materialize on day one.
Some of that can be attributed to a fierce thunderstorm that blasted teams running toward Venice, La., Thursday morning. The nasty thunder boomer greatly increased many teams’ running times as they tried to traverse a wretched Barataria Bay. Some teams even turned back toward Lafitte.
That’s not to say the fishing was bad, by any means, as over half the field caught 12 pounds or better, and plenty of teams reported catching 20 to 40 fish once the sun came out.
But only one team, comprised of Nash Roberts and Brad Schmit, both out of Metairie, La., could push a pair of redfish past the 16-pound mark with 16 pounds, 2 ounces to take the lead after day one.
Roberts and Schmit used up one of their best areas, located about an hour and a half from Lafitte, to acquire their day-one catch.
“We both guide down here, and during the scouting period, we found a pond neither one of us had ever been in,” Nash described. “It was a muddy pond, but out in the very center was a small patch of good grass surrounded by a little clearer water, and it was like every fish in the pond was relating to that tiny area.”
The team proceeded to catch all the fish the little area would give them.
“We probably caught seven or eight fish out of there, and that’s all it had,” Schmit said. “We won’t even go back there tomorrow; we feel like we pretty much burned it up. We’ve got some other ponds we’re going to check, and we’ve also got a deep spot we might check, too.”
Wiggins-Vandemark make deep bite pay off
Holding down second place with 15 pounds, 15 ounces is well-known 
television personality Blair Wiggins and team partner Tadd Vandemark, the only Floridians in the top 10.
“This is all due to Tadd,” Wiggins said. “He came here and scouted nine days to find these fish.”
What’s particularly interesting about the team’s catch is the way Vandemark found the spot.
“Everyone pretty much knows what went on here last week in the Redfish Cup and the way those guys caught their fish deep,” Wiggins explained. “So Tadd took the common denominators of their pattern – emerald green water, deep structure and bait – and went on a scavenger hunt to find something similar, and I think he hit the jackpot.”
Vandemark located the key area about five days ago. Today was the first day the team went back to visit the area, and they were conservative with the fish.
“We only caught four, got the 15-15 and then hung out and guarded the spot,” Wiggins said. “Tomorrow, we’ll probably push them a little harder, and if we make it to Saturday and the area is still producing, we’re going to see what it’s really got.”
Wiggins’ only concern for tomorrow is the tide, which is supposed to be opposite of what it was Thursday.
“Today, the tide was high in the morning and low this afternoon,” he said. “Tomorrow it’s going to be low in the morning, and we’ll just have to see what that brings. Hopefully the spot will be even better on a low tide.”
Three-way tie for third
At the 15-pound, 6-ounce mark, there is a three-way tie for third among the following teams: Andy Mnichowski of Marrero, La., and John McGill of Slidell, La.; Brett Phillips and Mike Patterson, both of Rockport, Texas; and Lloyd Landry and Luke Landry, both of Luling, La.
All three teams reported making runs of at least an hour or more.
Mnichowski and McGill are fishing on the east side of the Mississippi River, targeting deeper ponds.
“We thought we’d do a little better than we did,” Mnichowski offered. “But the water came up much more than we expected over there, and the fish became harder to see. If the wind would blow just a tad bit out of the northeast, like the weather man said it was supposed to today, it would help us out a bunch.”
Phillips and Patterson thought they had dialed in on a group of deep-water reds
during practice, but the fish abandoned the area today, and the team had to drop back and punt by sight-fishing in ponds.
“We found this great little flat along the river that came up out of 18 feet of water into 5 or 6 feet,” Phillips said. “It was loaded with fish the other day, and we went to it twice today and never got a bite.”
“That’s when we bailed out of the deep-water plan,” Patterson added. “We went looking shallow in some nearby ponds and salvaged our day with what we weighed in.”
Luke and Lloyd Landry also sight-fished shallow ponds for their catch today.
“We probably caught 50 fish, and many of those were just over (the slot limit),” Luke Landry said. “So many of these fish we’re catching are just a quarter to a half an inch too long.”
Day two of the FLW Redfish Series out of Lafitte will begin at 6:30 a.m. CDT at Lafitte Harbor Marina.