TITUSVILLE, Fla. (May 19, 2006) – Jim Armstrong of Chuluota, Fla., and Dennis Cox of Edgewater, Fla. caught a four-redfish total weighing 24 pounds, 1 ounce to lead day two 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.
Fishing the south end of Mosquito Lagoon, the leaders targeted flats with large potholes in less than two feet of water. They threw 4-inch Berkley Gulp! Shrimp in natural, glow and new penny color rigged on 5/0 worm hooks.
“We just crept along and barely moved the baits – almost dead sticking,” Armstrong said. “The little fish start pecking at the baits and that causes a lot of bottom disturbance, which draws attention to the baits.”
The team located a small school of redfish that were milling around the potholes. They caught 10 redfish Friday and had their heaviest pair in the boat by 8 a.m. “The fish were just swimming around randomly and we’d get our hits every 15 minutes or so,” Cox said.
Armstrong and Cox found their spot as they concluded practice late Wednesday afternoon. The anglers were eliminating unproductive water and happened to notice some activity on the flat.
“We saw just a handful of redfish, but we could tell they were tournament quality fish,” he said. “The area looked good so we decided to go for it.”
Cox said he plans to stick with the same spot for the final round. “We’re hoping to pull 9-11 pounds out of there. But we might get lucky and catch some nice fish.”
Rounding out the top five teams are Dallas Dudley of St. Cloud, Fla., and Shawn Harrell of Bartow, Fla. (four redfish, 24 pounds, 1 ounce); Wayne Fuller and Aaron Dill, both of New Smyrna Beach, Fla. (four redfish, 23 pounds, 10 ounces); Andrew Bostick of Marco Island, Fla., and Mark Sepe of Deland, Fla. (four redfish, 23 pounds, 2 ounces); Jeff Totten of Englewood, Fla., and Ozzie Lessinger of Fort Myers, Fla. (four redfish, 21 pounds, 3 ounces).
Teams caught a total of 190 redfish Friday weighing 798 pounds, 15 ounces – with 188 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 Saturday at 6:30 a.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, 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 world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.