SARASOTA, Fla. – Captain Jeff Hagaman of Tampa and James Goodwin of Palm Harbor caught two redfish weighing 13 pounds, 14 ounces to lead day one of the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Eastern Division event in Sarasota, where a field of 125 teams is competing for a top award of as much as $50,000 cash.
Goodwin said the team caught seven or eight redfish over the course of the day, including a couple they had to cull. One fish was just a quarter-inch longer than the maximum length limit of 27 inches and had to be released. “Releasing that one was tough,” Goodwin said. “He probably weighed 9 pounds or better.”
The anglers caught their redfish while working grass around a drop off with Berkley Gulp! shrimp on 1/8-ounce jigs.
Anglers had fair conditions with clear skies and highs in the upper 60s for the first day of the tournament. Hagaman said winds were blowing 25 to 30 mph, making sight-casting – a common method for catching redfish – impossible. In addition, recent red tides, resulting from a type of algae bloom, made long runs necessary just to reach fishable waters. Hagaman and Goodwin said they ran 60 miles one way to reach their fishing destination.
Rounding out the top-five teams are Sam Bertha Jr. of Bunnell and Bob Supina of Palm Coast (two redfish, 13 pounds, 14 ounces); Robert Carter of Plant City and Loye Futch of Lakeland (two redfish, 13 pounds, 11 ounces); Warren Girle of Longboat Key and Billey Harris of Bradenton (two redfish, 13 pounds, 11 ounces); and Ray Van Horn and Craig Richardson, both of Tarpon Springs (two redfish, 13 pounds, 5 ounces).
Sixty-three out of 125 teams caught and released a total of 160 redfish.
FLW Redfish Series qualifying tournaments are two-day events. The entire field competes Friday and Saturday, and the winning team is determined on Saturday based on the heaviest two-day accumulated weight. Boats will launch from the Centennial Park 10th Street Boat Ramp in Sarasota on Saturday at 7 a.m., and the final weigh-in will be held at the same location beginning at 3 p.m.
The next FLW Redfish Series Eastern Division event will be held April 29-30 in Mayport.
The FLW Redfish Series consists of two divisions – East and West. Each division is comprised of four events with a $200,000 purse for each event. The top 100 teams – 50 from each division after four qualifying events – will qualify for the three-day, no-entry-fee $300,000 Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Championship to be held in Mobile, Ala., Oct. 27-29. The championship winner will take home as much as $100,000.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and seven other national tournament circuits offering a combined $30 million in awards through 214 events in 2005. The 27-year-old organization is the purveyor of America’s largest and most prestigious fishing tournaments, including the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series.
For more information on FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, call (270) 252-1000.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1997 and today is the title sponsor of all FLW Outdoors events. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.