CHARLOTTE HARBOR, Fla. (July 23, 2005) -Howie Green of Bushnell and John Oliverio of Brandon caught a two-day total of four redfish weighing 28 pounds, 15 ounces to win the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Eastern Division event in Charlotte Harbor presented by Yamaha. Green and Oliverio defeated a full field of 150 teams – the largest field in the history of professional redfishing – to earn $50,000 cash, which is the largest regular-season first-place award in the history of the sport.
With extensive backwater areas and ideal habitat, Charlotte Harbor is one of the best-known redfish destinations in the country. While the catch was slightly down from day one, anglers still caught an impressive total of 349 redfish weighing 1,913 pounds, 4 ounces during the tournament – the season’s third event of the Eastern Division.
“Today started out just how we thought it would,” Oliverio said. “We went straight to our No. 1 spot, and we were the first boat there. We caught two small fish first thing and had those in the well for a while, and we just culling up all day. We caught our last fish at 2 p.m. and left at 2:15 p.m. to head back to weigh-in. We ran about 20 miles south.
“My partner and I brought both our boats here on Tuesday to practice, and we didn’t catch anything. On Thursday, we brought one boat back and caught three little fish in one spot, and that was the only spot we had. We heard rumors of a lot of reds on the other side of the bay on oyster bars, but we never fished it. So yesterday at noon, we decided to run over there, and there were fish everywhere.
“We were throwing a Berkley Gulp! Shrinp and Gulp! swimming minnow on 1/4-ounce jigheads. The fish were in thick grass in about 3 feet of water, and we pulled the baits through the grass. You would get grass on the hook every time, but the reds would smell that bait and come up and nail it.
“We’re thrilled to win $50,000, and it makes it even more special since this is the first full field in the FLW Redfish Series.”
Rounding out the top five teams were Jim Dalrymple of Tavernier and Steve Poland of Port St. Lucie (four redfish, 28 pounds, 13 ounces, $11,000); John Ochs of Englewood and Rhett Morris of Punta Gorda (four redfish, 29 pounds, 3 ounces, $6,000); Michael Manis of Punta Gorda and Jay Withers of Port Charlotte (four redfish, 28 pounds, 14 ounces, $5,000); and Joseph Porcelli of Oak Hill and Jeff Stellinga of Windermere (four redfish for 28 pounds, 3 ounces, $5,500).
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 FLW Redfish Series consists of two divisions – Eastern and Western. 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.
The next FLW Redfish Series Eastern Division event will be held in Titusville Aug. 19-20. The next Western Division event will be held in Galveston, Texas, Aug. 5-6.
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, visit FLWOutdoors.com or 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.