TITUSVILLE, Fla. – Jeff Totten of Englewood, Fla., and Ozzie Lessinger of Ft. Myers, Fla., caught a two-redfish limit weighing 13 pounds to lead day one of the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Eastern Division event in Titusville presented by Evinrude. A full field of 150 teams is competing for a top award of as much as $50,000 cash.
Totten and Lessinger targeted shoreline potholes in the morning and moved to open water sandbars in the afternoon. Fishing in 12-14 inches of water, they threw Berkley Gulp! Shrimp in natural, molting and new penny colors on 1/18- and 1/16-ounce jigheads.
Totten and Lessinger had only half a day to practice in what can be a very challenging area. But rather than allow the vast Titusville waterways to overwhelm them, the anglers put on their blinders and stuck with a game plan.
“We saw some fish in (practice) and tried to repeat that pattern today,” Totten said. “We tried not to overload ourselves with too many spots so we could concentrate on what we knew.
“We knew there weren’t a lot of redfish in the area we fished, but we knew that they were there. We focused on holding our ground and not running off to other spots. We just stayed in there and made it work.”
A combination of high water, persistent wind and a high pressure system left fishermen scratching their heads. “Yesterday the fish were bunched up, but today they were scattered,” Totten said. “We’re really pattern fishermen in our home waters of Charlotte Harbor, and it’s hard to figure out the pattern to these fish.”
Rounding out the top five teams are Wayne Fuller and Aaron Dill, both of New Smyrna Beach, Fla. (two redfish, 12 pounds, 3 ounces); Dallas Dudley of St. Cloud, Fla., and Shawn Harrell of Bartow, Fla. (two redfish, 12 pounds, 1 ounce); Ray Van Horn of Tarpon Springs, Fla., and C.A. Richardson of St. Petersburg, Fla. (two redfish, 11 pounds, 14 ounces); and Jim Armstrong of Chuluota, Fla., and Dennis Cox of Edgewater, Fla. (two redfish, 11 pounds, 7 ounces).
Teams caught 197 redfish weighing 821 pounds, 15 ounces – with 196 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 Sand Point Park Friday and Saturday at 6:30 a.m. Friday’s weigh-in will be held at Sand Point Park beginning at 3 p.m., and the final weigh-in will be held at the Titusville Wal-Mart located at 3175 Cheney Hwy. beginning at 3 p.m.
The next FLW Redfish Series Eastern Division event will be held July 13-15 in Fernandina Beach, Fla.
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, browse 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 world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.