Benson-Howie beat Barry

Team weathers tropical storm to win Redfish Series event at Fernandina Beach

FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – The top five teams that fished the final day of the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series event in Fernandina Beach on Saturday earned every last penny of their prize money.

During the course of the day, the teams endured severe squalls, wind gusts up to 50 mph and blinding downpours thanks to an uninvited guest, Barry, as in Tropical Storm Barry, which blew up out of the Gulf of Mexico on Friday and crossed the state of Florida on Saturday morning.

As the teams returned safely to Fernandina Harbor Marina, each one had such lurid tales of storm-induced torment that Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel would have been proud.

“At times, it was almost comical,” said BP pro David Walker about the day. “We couldn’t stand up, and even with the trolling motor on high, we were going backwards because of the wind.”

“Four-footers were rolling across Nassau Sound,” reported Daniel Benson.

“At one point it was a whiteout; we couldn’t see 50 yards in front of us!” exclaimed Jason Swensson of a blinding down pour.

Amazingly, however, a few teams did manage to boat keeper redfish in the harsh conditions, starting with the leading team, Daniel Benson of Brandon, Fla., and Steven Howie of Saint Cloud, Fla., who boated just one keeper redfish for 5 pounds, 5 ounces to defend their lead and win the event with a three-day total of 30 pounds, 10 ounces.

The team collected the full $50,000 prize purse for being both Ranger and Yamaha owners.

“This is unbelievable,” said Howie. “We were Team of the Year last year without ever making a top-five, and the first top-five we make, we win – unreal. Maybe when I wake up in the morning, I’ll believe it.

“Given the weather and tides this morning, we decided to start right here in Fernandina,” Howie added. “We knew that with this northeast wind, this morning’s tide was as low as we were going to see all day, so we started as close to here as possible to take advantage of the tide and the calmest part of the morning.”

The team’s plan led to a single keeper redfish early.

“Thank God for that one,” Howie said. “That won it for us. At the time we thought it was just a bonus fish. We eventually ran across Nassau Sound to our best water in the Intracoastal, but it had 2-footers rolling in on it.”

The team then bailed out on their best water and came back to Fernandina early to try for another fish close by, but it was too late.

“The tide was superhigh, everything was flooded, and our day was done.”

During the week the team caught their fish on white Gulp jerkshads fished on jigheads.

“We basically concentrated on troughs and ditches along the bank in the Intracoastal,” Howie explained. “If the bank was flat or fell off into oysters, it was no good. But if it had a little ditch running along the base of the grass, it funneled current, and that’s where the redfish were staging up with the falling water.”

Swensson-Mell nearly pull off win, finish runners-up

Coming into the final day, the team of Jason Swensson of Key Largo, Fla., and Troy Mell of Islamorada, Fla., was in fifth place, some 3 pounds off the lead.

They started the day running to their best spot near Sisters Creek, but their water was fried from the storm’s high tide and wind.

Without a fish, the team headed back early.

“On the way back, I told Troy I was done,” Swensson said. “I had enough of wind and rain, and our water was trashed. So we came to the dock here to check in.”

But when the team came to check in two hours early, they were told they would just have to sit around and wait for the official check-in time of 2:30.

“So Troy says, `Let’s at least just go right over there and wet a line,'” Swensson recounted, pointing to a shoreline that was in view of the weigh-in. “We started fishing our Zara Super Spook topwaters on that protected shoreline and caught two keeper redfish within an hour.”

Those two redfish constituted the only redfish limit being caught on the final day, which pushed the team to second place with a three-day total of 30 pounds, 2 ounces and garnered them $8,108 in winnings.

Rest of the best

David Walker of Sevierville, Tenn., and Jeff Simms of Punta Gorda, Fla., finished third with a three-day total of 29 pounds, 8 ounces, collecting $5,198.

The BP team caught one keeper redfish on a spinnerbait early before the weather and high water prevented them from fishing effectively.

Al Keller and Bill Faulkner of Naples, Fla., made a run back to St. Augustine to sample their best fishing hole to no avail and ended the day with a zero.

They finished the event in fourth place with a three-day day total of 24 pounds, 5 ounces, worth $3,842.

Scott Guthrie of Jacksonville, Fla., and Rick Murphy of Homestead, Fla., were sidelined not only by weather but also by motor troubles, which left them with a zero for the day as well.

They ended the event in fifth with a three-day total of $3,486.

What’s more, Guthrie and Murphy’s fifth-place finish caused them to slide back by a point in the overall standings, meaning they tied Cody and Kyle Chivas for the Land O’Lakes Team of the Year with 540 points total.

The next event in the FLW Redfish Series for the top 50 qualifiers in the Eastern Division will be the Redfish Series Championship in Orange Beach, Ala., October 18-20.