PENSACOLA, Fla. – The wind flip-flopped on day two of the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Championship and so did the leaderboard.
As the wind shifted from out of the south to out of the north overnight, four of the top five teams from Thursday were displaced as four new teams took their places Friday.
For the most part, the common denominators found in those teams that have survived to fish Saturday’s final round include staying close and fishing docks.
Such is the case with current leaders John Henninger and John Eggers of Jacksonville, Fla.
Henninger-Eggers made a long run to Mississippi on day one to collect 10 pounds, 8 ounces. But this morning, when they saw the forecast, they decided to stay in Pensacola Bay and fish docks.
“We made the run yesterday, and we didn’t like the short fishing day it left us,” Henninger said. “So today we just decided to fish close and maximize our fishing time.”
After blastoff, the team ran to a set of boat docks appearing to have potential and started fishing Berkley Gulp baits around the pilings. By day’s end, they caught two redfish for 13-3 giving them the tournament lead with 23-11 overall.
“We’re fishing water we’ve never fished before,” Henninger said. “The main thing we’re keying on is docks that have a lot of broken or mottled bottom around them.”
One dock in particular contained a small school of good-sized reds.
“We got our best fish there,” Henninger said. “But once we caught it, the school spooked and never came back. We’re hoping that school settles back in around that dock tomorrow.”
Hughey-Tanner second
Also fishing a solid dock pattern close to Pensacola is the redfish team of Jason
Hughey of Davenport, Fla., and Travis Tanner of Christmas, Fla.
The team added 12 pounds, 6 ounces of redfish to its day-one catch of 10-6 for a two-day total of 22-15 and second place.
“We’ve been refining the dock pattern here for about a week,” Tanner said. “We’ve found several docks that have a perfect mix of deeper potholes around the dock and plenty of bait.”
The Florida team is catching a lot fish each day, but many of them are in the 15- to 20-inch range.
“We have to fish through quite a few reds to get those in the upper slot,” Tanner added. “Each day only three or four of our fish are the right size.”
Walter-Winters remains third
The only team remaining in the top five after day one is that of Kris Walter of Hudson, Fla., and Danny Winters of Tampa, Fla.
The team sacked two redfish for 10-6 today to add to yesterday’s catch of 12-5 for a two-day total of 22-15.
The wind blew out Walter and Winters’ primary area today, and they had to resort to their backup plan: docks.
“It was a lot rougher on us today,” Winters said. “We only had three keepers, but two of them were enough to keep us in the top five.”
Wiggins-Vandemark pulls into fourth
“Addictive Fishing” host Blair Wiggins of Cocoa, Fla., and Tadd Vandemark of 
Key Largo, Fla., hauled in 12 pounds, 14 ounces today to move into fourth place with a two-day total of 22-5.
The team is staying close, running about 20 miles into the more riverine environs of one of the nearby bays.
“We’re fishing back up where the fresh water meets the salt,” Wiggins said. “It’s so fresh there we’re catching bass with our reds.”
“We could’ve had about a 12-pound limit of bass yesterday,” Vandemark noted. “The biggest one was about 4 pounds.
“We really had to adjust today,” he continued. “We went back to where we fished yesterday, and the water had dropped, so we started fishing out deeper in the main rivers, and the adjustment worked.”
Tauzin-Jordan takes final slot
Nabbing the fifth position by just 5 ounces is the team of Chief Tauzin and Clark Jordan of Pearland, Texas, with a two-day total of 22-1.
The Texas team is making the longest run of the top five, 60 miles to the east.
During the practice period, the team split up, with Tauzin going west to Mississippi and Jordan going way east. After evaluating their findings in each direction, the team decided to go east in the tournament.
“Clark has really carried us in this tournament,” Tauzin said. “He found some flats over there holding big pods of mullet, and that’s how we fish back home – following the mullet. We haven’t caught any really big reds over there; 12 pounds a day is about the best of what it has to offer.”
Just 1 pound, 10 ounces separates fifth place from first, so tomorrow’s final weigh-in promises to be an exciting one as the FLW Redfish Series Championship title, and the potential $100,000 that goes with it, is still up for grabs.
The final day of competition begins at 7 a.m. at Shoreline Park South in Gulf Breeze, Fla.