COCODRIE, La. – James Lloyd, of Deer Park, Texas, and John Lloyd, of Pasadena, Texas, caught a four-redfish total weighing 32 pounds to lead day two 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.
The team of Tadd VanDemark and Kevin Shaw finished the day in second place, putting themselves in contention for back-to-back Redfish Series Western Division titles.
“Today was great,” said Tadd VanDemark, who has amassed more than $78,000 in career earnings with FLW Outdoors. “We were on a good school of fish today. We pulled into one spot and was able to get the job done. We boated two nice fish early this morning. We were probably done fishing by 9 a.m. The fish seem to be relating to this spot due to the massive amounts of bait near by. The tides are also playing a huge roll in the productivity of this spot. It seems to be the best on the low-water, incoming tide.
“Tomorrow is going to be the right tides we need to fish this spot. We are going to go back and do the exact same thing again tomorrow. There is about a 100 fish in the school we are working on and most all of them are in the slot. If we can get 15 pounds or more tomorrow, I think we have a shot at winning this.”
The team of VanDemark and Shaw were throwing a combination of DOA shrimp and cowtails. Both of these baits were covered in Carolina Lunker Sauce in crab and shrimp scents to help cut down on the refusals from these finicky reds.
Rounding out the top five teams are: Ray Chagnard and Edward Adams both of Metairie, La. (four redfish, 31 pounds, 5 ounces); John Henninger and Chris Henninger, both of Jacksonville, Fla. (four redfish, 30 pounds, 15 ounces); and Todd DuFour and Alden Bourgeois, both of Marrero, La. (four redfish, 30 pounds, 11 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 Saturday morning at 6 a.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.