PENSACOLA, Fla. – John Henninger of Jacksonville, Fla., and John Eggers of Jacksonville Beach, Fla. caught a four-redfish total weighing 23 pounds, 11 ounces to lead day two of the $300,000 Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Championship in Pensacola where teams are competing for a top award of as much as $100,000 cash.
Fishing a 22-foot Ranger Bay Boat with a 250-hp Yamaha outboard, the leaders faced stiff winds that shifted from a southerly direction Thursday to a northerly blow on day 2. After running west to fish Mississippi’s coastal waters during day 1, rough seas convinced them to stay closer to port on Friday.
Henninger and Eggers spent the first half of their day investigating a spot given to them by a fellow competitor who did not qualify for Saturday’s final round. When this effort failed to produce any redfish, the anglers knew it was time for a drastic change.
“We ran up the Escambia River looking for a big stringer, but the fish had moved,” said Henninger. “We had no fish at noon and we were kicking ourselves for not going back to Mississippi.
“We had heard that dock fishing up here was pretty good, so we decided to try to find some fish that way. We were looking for docks with broken bottom – sand holes and grass.”
Targeting structures off the Intracoastal Waterway between Pensacola and Navarre, the leaders threw 3-inch Berkley Gulp! Shrimp in molting color on ¼-ounce jigheads. Success was far from immediate, but fate soon smiled and the team put together enough weight to top Friday’s weigh-ins.
“The first dock we went to, we broke off a big fish and the second dock we broke off another fish,” Henninger said. “We said `This just isn’t our day.’ But at the next dock, we got lucky and got a big fish.”
After working the first set of docks they found, the duo moved further down the Intracoastal and continued their search. “We just looked for that same pattern of docks with sand and grass,” Henninger said. “We saw one that looked right and we said `Let’s turn in here and try this one.’ And that’s where we got our second fish. We were high-fiving, screaming and hollering.”
Henninger said that fighting redfish around heavy structure is more challenging than open-water struggles. “That wasn’t easy getting those redfish out from around the docks,” he said. “That first fish was really tough. My partner had to literally take his rod and dip it down in the water and go around a piling. It was just amazing that we got that fish in the boat.”
Rounding out the top five teams are Jason Hughey of Davenport, Fla., and Travis Tanner of Christmas, Fla. (four redfish, 22 pounds, 15 ounces); Chris Walter of Hudson, Fla., and Danny Winters of Tampa, Fla. (four redfish, 22 pounds, 11 ounces); Blair Wiggins of Cocoa, Fla., and Tadd Vandermark of Key Largo, Fla. (four redfish, 22 pounds, 5 ounces); and Chief Thauzin and Clark Jordan, both of Taraland, Texas (four redfish, 22 pounds, 1 ounce).
Teams caught 254 redfish Friday weighing a total of 1,150 pounds, 13 ounces, with all being released alive.
FLW Redfish Series 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 Shoreline Park South in Gulfbreeze Saturday at 7 a.m., and the final weigh-in will be held at the Gulfbreeze Wal-Mart located at 3767 Gulf Breeze Parkway beginning at 4:30 p.m.
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 – qualified for the three-day, no-entry-fee Championship. 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 Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail presented by Abu Garcia, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $37.9 million through 249 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.