Vandemark-Shaw pop to the top

Another 17-pound limit delivers Redfish Series win at Venice

VENICE, La. – How crazy is it to see three 17-pound limits of redfish in a single day’s weigh-in? Pretty crazy, but how much more crazy is it to see one team catch back-to-back 17-pound stringers? That’s what Tadd Vandemark and Kevin Shaw did to win the final Walmart FLW Redfish Series Western Division event at Venice Marina.

And get this: The winners caught the exact same total on the tournament’s second and third days. After placing eighth on day one with 15 pounds, 10 ounces, they came back strong on day two with 17-11 – the heaviest stringer in FLW Redfish Series history – and took the lead with a two day total of 33-5. Packing on another 17-11 in the final round converted their lead into a victory with 51 pounds.

Making their homes in Key Largo, Fla., and Corpus Christi, Texas, Vandemark and Shaw fished the same general area for three days. Working the marsh west of Venice, they found schools of redfish in and around a shallow pond. Intrinsic to the area’s productivity was the presence of pogy (menhaden) schools.

The winners caught all of their fish on DOA shrimp suspended beneath Cajun Thunder cork rigs. When describing his team’s tactics, Vandemark gave props to fellow competitor Travis Tanner, who placed second with Blair Wiggins – Vandermark’s former tournament partner.

“That’s all we did today – popping, popping, popping,” Vandemark said. “When I came here a week ago, I had never thrown (a popping cork), but Travis Tanner taught me how to throw one, and it worked.”

From the crowd, Wiggins jokingly chided Tanner by shouting, “It’s all your fault!”

Vandemark said that enhancing his bait’s appeal with Lunker Sauce scent attractant contributed to the rig’s effectiveness: “We put all of our baits in a bag and soaked them so we didn’t have to apply it all the time. We would just change out baits about every 15 to 20 casts.”

Lauding the cork rig’s winning blend of simplicity and effectiveness, Vandemark said: “You can’t make a lot of mistakes with this rig. You just throw your cork out there, pop it a few times, and when it goes under, you set the hook. By that cork going under, it gives you a delay time, so you’re not yanking it out of the fish’s mouth.”

With their Venice victory, Vandemark and Shaw finished in seventh place in the Redfish Series Western Division standings. They finished ninth in the Eastern Division.

In addition to $50,000 in tourney earnings, winning in Venice also gave each angler their fourth FLW Redfish Series trophy. Together, they won the Port Aransas, Texas, event and the Western Division Team of the Year title in 2007. Vandermark and Wiggins won the Series Championship in 2006, and Shaw notched a 2005 win at Port Aransas with a former partner.

Wiggins-Tanner slip to second

Fishing within eyesight of the winning team throughout most of the day, Wiggins and Tanner added 17 pounds, 7 ounces to their day-two score of 32-10 and remained in second place with 50-1. The anglers from Cocoa and Titusville, Fla., fished MirrOlure topwaters, DOA shrimp under popping corks and free-lined DOA baits.

“We threw everything we could to get `em,” Wiggins said. “We did what we could do, and it was second best.”

Tanner reported that his team’s keeper fish came early: “I think we were pretty much done by 11 o’clock. After that, it would have been tough to upgrade. (Seventeen pounds) is about as big as you’re going to see (at a tournament).”

Wiggins said he and Tanner enjoyed abundant fishing: “We only hit our first spot. We stayed there all day long because the fish were in there thick. Later in the day, when the sun got up high, we got on the ladder and started sight-fishing them.”

Wiggins and Tanner won the FLW Redfish Series event in Panama City, Fla., on May 3.

Pizzolato-Eschete end a rocky day in third

Dwayne Eschete of Mandeville, La., and Blake Pizzolato of Montgomery, Texas, returned to the South Pass jetties and caught the day’s second-largest limit, which weighed 17 pounds, 9 ounces. Adding this to their two-day score of 32-7 kept them in third place with 50 pounds even.

Eschete and Pizzolato fished Berkley Gulp Shrimp fished under corks. As they experienced on day two, casting upcurrent and letting baits drift by the rocks was the key to catching approximately 60 redfish. Not all were tournament-grade fish, but playing the numbers game enabled them to secure a competitive limit.

“It’s just a matter of being consistent, knowing that there’s fish there and sticking with it,” Eschete said. “When you fish like this, you have to go through the small ones to get to the right ones.

“Today, we caught the right ones first, and we were hoping we could upgrade but we never did. We knew we had 17 pounds by 8:20, and we said, `If we can upgrade, this is going to be great.'”

Eschete said a trio of 17-pound stringers is an amazing occurrence that he attributes to the summer’s hurricane activity: “Any time you see a 17-pound stringer, that’s two freakish fish, so seeing three 17-pound stringers is strong. Whenever you have a storm, you get a lot of the storm minnows moving in, so I attribute (the heavy weights) to all the bait moving in. You can see all of those fish had big, big guts on them.”

Eschete and Pizzolato won the FLW Redfish Series event in Venice on June 14.

Whites wind up in fourth

Barnie White of Brewton, Ala., and his father, Steve White of Petal, Ala., entered the final round in fifth place with a two day total of 31 pounds, 14 ounces. A 15-pound, 5-ounce catch on day three raised their total to 47-3 and lifted them to fourth place.

Barnie summarized their laborious day: “Popping cork, popping cork, popping cork. I’m sick of it, and my shoulder is sore.”

Actually, their tactic of hanging Berkley Gulp Shrimp and Flurry Minnows beneath the Bayou Buck Pogeaux Popper was a sound strategy for their target area. In the Delacroix marsh northeast of Venice, the Whites found plenty of redfish, but the water remained stirred from Hurricane Gustav’s Sept. 1 passing.

“The combination of high water and all the trouble they’ve had with hurricanes has really changed things up there,” Barnie said. “Where we were, sight-fishing was out. We knew there were some big fish in there, and popping corks seemed to do it.”

Steve said he and Barnie focused on points off the interior bays.

Ritter-Billiot slip to fifth

Scott Ritter of Dauphin Island, Ala., and Chad Billiot of Raceland, La., caught a limit weighing 14 pounds, 12 ounces for a fifth-place total of 47-2. Earlier in the week, the anglers established a pattern of fishing the run-out drains from shallow ponds on outgoing tides. Unfortunately, today’s high tide came around midday, so the window of opportunity was brief.

“We knew we needed the tide to pull out more, because on our practice days, we found that the bigger fish were coming out on the losing tide,” Billiot said. “But with the high tide getting later each day, we knew that our time to fish the losing tide would be less and less.”

The anglers spent most of the day working jigs, topwater plugs and spinnerbaits around the pond’s perimeter.

Ritter and Billiot won the FLW Redfish Series event in Port Lavaca, Texas, on April 12.