CHARLOTTE HARBOR, Fla. – Andrew Bostick of Marco Island and Mark Miller of Plainfield, Ind., caught two redfish weighing 16 pounds to lead day one of the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Eastern Division event in Charlotte Harbor presented by Yamaha. A full field of 150 teams – the largest in the history of professional redfishing – is competing for a top award of as much as $50,000 cash.
Anglers experienced typical summertime South Florida conditions Friday. Temperatures hovered around 90 with a heat index exceeding 100, isolated afternoon thundershowers drifted through the area and breeze blew in from the Gulf. Along with the weather, the fishing was also hot, with many solid two-fish limits reaching the scale. Double-digit weights were recorded down to 54th place.
“We ran about 45 miles from Stump Pass,” Bostick said. “We’re sight fishing really shallow water with Berkley Gulp! Shrimp, but we couldn’t actually see the fish, we could see their wakes. And we also blind casted to bushes. We caught about eight or nine keepers today, with one fish being over (the slot limit).”
Rounding out the top five teams are Bryan Watts of Lithia and Greg Watts of Eagle Lake (two redfish, 15 pounds, 11 ounces); Travis Tanner of Christmas and Jason Hughey of Davenport (two redfish, 15 pounds, 6 ounces); and in a fourth-place tie were the team of Joseph Porcelli of Oak Hill and Jeff Stellinga of Windermere and the team of Gary McKenzie of Bartow and Terry Brantley of Arcadia (both teams weighed two redfish for 14 pounds, 12 ounces).
Anglers caught and a total of 198 redfish Friday weighing 1,076 pounds, 1 ounce.
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. Boats will launch from Stump Pass Marina in Inglewood Saturday at 7 a.m., and the final weigh-in will be held at Stump Pass Marina beginning at 3 p.m.
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.