CLEARWATER, Fla. – Bo Johnson of Cape Coral, Fla., and Richard Hudec of Naples, Fla., punished their bodies again today to make another 100-mile-plus run to Pine Island Sound in the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Eastern Division event.
And for the second day in a row, the long run paid off. The Florida team brought in two redfish for 13 pounds, 13 ounces Friday to take the lead with a two-day total of 27 pounds, 15 ounces.
“Man, Rich and I are pretty beat up; I don’t know if we can do that again,” Johnson said. “We got down there in about an hour and 45 minutes this morning, but coming back was about three and a half hours.”
The team’s fate now lies mostly with Mother Nature.
“I guess we’ll try it again tomorrow,” he said. “I feel pretty confident that we can catch another 14 pounds again if we make it, but it all depends on the wind.”
Another element Johnson is concerned with is a large local tournament putting in around Pine Island Sound on Saturday.
“We might get there and the place might be covered up – we’ll just see.”
Once they gets to their primary spot, they are sight-casting a large group of reds with Berkley Gulp shrimp and jerkbaits.
“It’s a real finesse-type bite,” Johnson said. “We have to make long casts to sand spots that the fish are traveling over. When we see the fish coming, we twitch the bait and they eat it. Getting the cast set up properly takes some time, though. It’s not as easy as just casting in there, catching two and leaving.”
Mulletts second
Cousins Ken and Jeff Mullett of Sarasota, Fla., bettered their cumulative weight today with 
two fish redfish weighing 13 pounds, 12 ounces for a two-day total of 26 pounds, 5 ounces.
“We had two keepers with the first cast and the fourth cast,” Ken Mullett said. “We worked the same area as yesterday. It’s a hole with a lot of rock around it.”
The team enticed the fish with Berkley Gulp shrimp rigged on an 1/8-ounce Mustad Ultra-Lock hook.
“Just keeping away from the hole and making long casts to it was the key – for the few casts we made,” Mullett said. “We’re going with the same plan tomorrow.”
Sapps third
Troy and Jill Sapp of Odessa, Fla., made Redfish Series history today by being the first husband-wife team to make a top-five final round.
The couple weighed in two redfish for 13 pounds, 9 ounces to hold down third with a two-day total of 25 pounds, 13 ounces.
“We were done in six casts this morning,” Jill Sapp said. “He caught one on the first cast, and I caught one a few casts later.”
Having their fish caught, measured and secured in the livewell by 8:15 in the morning, the Sapps spent the next six hours riding around, eating lunch and catching up on sleep.
Troy Sapp guides out of Tarpon Springs, Fla., and he is fishing familiar water in that area.
“We’ve got a school of about 40 or 50 fish that are following mullet in heavy grass,” he said. “When we see the mullet rooting around, feeding and stirring up the bottom, we make long casts in those mullet muds, and the redfish are right behind them eating whatever they flush up off the bottom.”
The team is fishing Berkley Gulp jerkbaits and using the wind to their backs to make extra-long casts to the mullet and reds.
Henninger-Eggers fourth
Moving into fourth place with one of the biggest two-fish stringers of the
tournament – 14 pounds, 6 ounces – was John Henninger and John Eggers of Jacksonville, Fla.
They now have a two-day total of 23 pounds, 13 ounces.
The team is making a 65-mile run to the south and fishing one small school of reds in a depression.
“The school only has about 15 fish in it, but they’re kind of trapped in this one little 2-foot hole that is surrounded by a supershallow flat,” Eggers said. “We only caught four fish yesterday and just those two big ones today, so we’re not getting a whole lot of bites.”
The team is using Berkley Gulp 4-inch shrimp rigged backwards on a weighted hook.
“We call it the John-and-John rig,” Henninger said. “When you turned the shrimp around and rig it tail first, it casts so much better because that heavy head is cutting through the air first.”
Chivases fifth
Young fishing brothers Cody and Kyle Chivas of Belleair Bluffs, Fla., snuck into the top five on day two with a two-day total of 22 pounds, 13 ounces.
The local team is fishing very close to the Coachmen Park launch, focusing on docks with jigs and spoons.
The brothers are well-accomplished kingfish and tarpon anglers in the area and decided to try a redfish tournament this week.
“This is our first redfish tournament, so we’re pretty excited,” said Cody Chivas. “I know we’ve got a few pounds to make up between us and first place, but being that we’re fishing so close, some bad wind could hurt the other guys, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
The third and final day of the Redfish Series Eastern starts Saturday at 7 a.m. at Coachman Park in Clearwater, Fla.