COCODRIE, La. – Todd DuFour and Alden Bourgeois, both of Marrero, La., caught a two-redfish limit weighing 16 pounds, 4 ounces to lead day one of the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Western Division event in Cocodrie, La., where teams are competing for a top award of as much as $50,000 cash.
“Things started out kind of slow this morning but ended with a bang this afternoon,” said DuFour, who ran more than two hours towards Lafitte, La., before ever wetting a line. “We caught our two fish we weighed in the last two hours of fishing time before we had to make the long run back. We had a really good day. We caught about 15 fish all day and never lost a single one.
“We were running and gunning, hitting a number of spots throughout the day. We were trying to catch one good solid keeper and search for a big kicker fish the rest of the afternoon.
“Our plan for tomorrow is to go straight back to where we caught these fish at today. During our running and gunning we were able to eliminate some water and key in on what the fish were relating to.”
DuFour and Bourgeois were mainly throwing spinnerbaits targeting reds in shallow water close to big schools of bait.
Rounding out the top five teams are team Duracell, Andy Mnichowski, of Marrero, La, and Billy Nicholas, of San Marcos, La. (2 redfish, 16 pounds, 2 ounces); Kevin Shaw, of Corpus Christi, Texas, and Tadd VanDemark, of Key Largo, Fla. (2 redfish, 15 pounds, 13 ounces); Ray Chagnard and Edward Adams, both of Metairie, La. (2 redfish, 15 pounds, 11 ounces) and team Folgers, Todd Adams and Tommy Ramzinsky, both of Rockport, Texas (2 redfish, 15 pounds, 2 ounces).
Qualifying tournaments in the $1.9 million Wal-Mart Redfish Series – the most lucrative redfish tournament trail in the world – are three-day events. Up to 150 teams compete 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 CoCo Marina each morning at 6 a.m. Friday’s weigh-in will also be held at CoCo Marina beginning at 3 p.m. The final weigh-in will be held Saturday at the Wal-Mart store located at 1633 Martin Luther King Blvd. in Houma, La., beginning at 4 p.m.
The FLW Redfish Series consists of two divisions – Eastern and Western. Each division is comprised of four qualifying 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 Orange Beach, Ala., Oct. 18-20. 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, Ranger Owners Tournament Championship Series, 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 of nearly $43 million through 241 events in 2007.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most-respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Walmart.com.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, call (270) 252-1000.