PORT ARANSAS, Texas – Kevin Fahadi and Kevin Shaw, both of Corpus Christi, caught a two-day total of four redfish weighing 32 pounds, 7 ounces to win $37,500 in the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Western Division event presented by Yamaha in Port Aransas. The team earned $25,000 plus an additional $12,500 for the Powered by Yamaha bonus award. Shaw and Fahadi were competing against a field of 117 teams.
“We’ve been on some fish in the Sulfur Road Flats area for a month now,” Fahadi said. “I went there each day to be sure the fish were still there in all types of weather, and then I’d leave them alone.” Once the event began, Fahadi said the team would begin the morning by casting Wal-Mart Renegade topwater lures and then switch to soft-plastic offerings later in the day. The team stayed in the same area all day on both days of the event. According to Fahadi, the area was sandy and 2 1/2-3 feet deep with scattered grass, where the redfish were gathered to feed on crabs.
Rounding out the top five teams are Kurt Kolida of Port Lavaca and Michael Shimek of Bay City (four redfish, 31 pounds, 12 ounces, $9,600); Steven Auld Jr. of Baytown and Jeff Larson of Friendswood (four redfish, 29 pounds, 15 ounces, $5,475); Kirk Kuykendall of Houston and Jeff Schneider of Bellaire (four redfish, 29 pounds, 10 ounces, $4,475); and Skipper Mock of South Padre Island and Eddie Curry of Laguna Vista (four redfish, 28 pounds, 1 ounce, $4,150).
Anglers caught a total of 167 redfish weighing 867 pounds, 14 ounces on the final day of the event.
FLW Redfish Series qualifying tournaments are two-day events. The entire field competes Friday and Saturday, and the winning team is determined Saturday based on the heaviest two-day accumulated weight.
The next FLW Redfish Series Western Division event will be held June 24-25 in Grand Isle, La.
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.