PORT ARANSAS, Texas – Jay Watkins and Jay Watkins Jr., both of Rockport, Texas caught a two-redfish limit weighing 15 pounds, 14 ounces to lead day one of the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Western Division event in Port Aransas presented by Yamaha, where teams are competing for a top award of as much as $50,000 cash.
The Watkins team moved into the top spot when Jimmie Dooms and Jason Rieger, both of Portland, Texas had their day one weight of 16 pounds, 4 ounces disallowed for an infraction that violated the FLW Outdoors rule governing Permitted Fishing Locations. Dooms and Rieger remain eligible for day two.
Fishing the north end of San Antonio Bay, the Watkins targeted the edges of potholes and grass in 2 1/2-4 feet of water. They fished 4-inch Bass Assassin Sea Shads in Morning Glory and Plum Canary colors on 1/16-ounce jigheads.
Jay Sr. said that catching a couple of redfish by 8:30 a.m. gave him and his son the mental edge they needed to succeed. “Any time you get fish in the boat early, your confidence level rises and you can slow down a little. By doing this, we were able to stay in the area we needed to stay.”
“We told ourselves before the tournament that we were going to grind. We knew there were tournament winning fish here, so we just stayed on them.”
Rounding out the top five teams are Danny Coppin of Belton, Texas, and Grant Coppin of Corpus Christi, Texas (two redfish, 15 pounds, 4 ounces); Tommy Ramzinsky of Fulton, Texas, and Todd Adams of Rockport, Texas (two redfish, 14 pounds, 15 ounces); Joey Lara of Robstown, Texas, and Larry Robinson of Rockport, Texas (two redfish, 14 pounds, 9 ounces); and Jonathon and Kris Culpepper, both of Houston, Texas (two redfish, 14 pounds, 6 ounces).
Anglers caught a total of 175 redfish Thursday weighing 853 pounds, 6 ounces with 169 being released alive.
FLW Redfish Series qualifying tournaments are three-day events. The entire field competes Thursday and Friday, and the top five teams, based on heaviest combined weight, advance to Saturday’s final round. The winning team is determined Saturday based on the heaviest three-day accumulated weight. Boats will launch from Port Aransas City Marina Friday and Saturday at 7 a.m. Friday’s weigh-in will be held at Port Aransas City Marina beginning at 3 p.m., and the final weigh-in will be held at the Aransas Pass Wal-Mart located at 1920 W. Wheeler Road beginning at 3 p.m.
The next FLW Redfish Series Western Division event will be held June 15-17 in Cocodrie, La.
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 Pensacola, Fla., Oct. 19-21. 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, as well as the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $36.9 million through 241 events in 2006.
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 world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.