Brawl for big reds begins in Rockport

Championship berths, Western Division Team of the Year title up for grabs in final FLW Redfish Series event of regular season

ROCKPORT, Texas – Hurricane Dean may have pushed back the start date of the final Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series event of the 2007 regular season, but nothing could suppress the competitive spirit of the teams that motored away from Rockport Beach Park on Thursday morning after finally getting the green light. After all, this tournament will not only award up to $50,000 to the winning duo, but it will determine the Western Division Team of the Year and finalize championship berths.

This event was originally slated to take place two weeks ago in Rockport, Texas, but the advancing Hurricane Dean necessitated a postponement. Now the final regular-season event of both the Western Division and the Redfish Series at large, which kicked off in Rockport at 7 a.m. today under breezy and humid conditions, will conclude Saturday, Sept. 8, after three days of redfishing on the Gulf.

For teams that prefer fishing the flats near Rockport or farther north up the Texas Coastal Bend, the two-week delay may prove fruitful. But the teams that have focused their efforts farther south in the Corpus Christi area, like the one captained by Stephen Stork of Houston, could have a tougher go of it due to the rains that have soaked the area in the interim.

“The fishing was outstanding about two to three weeks ago, especially down south … there were plenty of sight-fish and schooling fish,” Stork said. “But all the rain turned the water down there.”

Stork, who just wrapped up a redfish tourney in Florida and has only prefished for two days here, said the fishing near Rockport has improved, while conditions in his area have diminished somewhat. However, he said he’ll still make the long run to the south in search of the big reds he knows are there, despite intermittent gusts that will make the 25-mile trip take up to an hour one way.

“There are still some clean enough pockets to do some sight-fishing,” he said. “It’d be a lot better if the wind wasn’t blowing 20 mph, but there will be some good fish weighed in.

“There’s still so many fish everywhere that you’ll catch them just blind-casting, but that way you’ll get a lot of 3s (3-pounders) and 4s.”

With a prediction of the winning team “pushing 45 pounds” for a combined weight over three days, Stork said his team will continue to target sight-fish in about 18 inches of water and possibly do some drift-fishing. They will be casting Berkley Gulp shrimp baits.

Though the breeze only registered 7 mph and skies were relatively clear right at the 7 a.m. start time, Redfish Series anglers are likely to contend with 10- to 15-mph winds for much of the day that are forecasted to blow at up to 20 mph by afternoon. Isolated showers could affect the bite this morning as well.

Points race

Though some local anglers who will only fish this single event grace the 87-boat field, many are career fishermen and Western Division regulars who are almost as eager to earn points as cash checks. And the points race is going to be one of the most compelling parts of this week’s storyline.

At stake is entry into the 2007 Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Championship, taking place Oct. 18-20 in Orange Beach, Ala., where the checks are even bigger. But also hanging in the balance is the 2007 Land O’Lakes Redfish Series Western Division Team of the Year title and all the bragging rights it affords.

The race is currently a fairly tight one, with less than 50 points separating the leaders from fifth place. And the leaderboard can shift quickly in a tournament where 150 points is awarded to the winner.

At the start of this event, the top five team in contention for Western Division Team of the Year are as follows:

1st: Tadd VanDemark and Kevin Shaw, Key Largo, Fla., 440 points

2nd: Jonathan Culpepper and Kris Culpepper, Houston, 431

3rd: Ray Chagnard and Edward Adams, Metairie, La., 423

4th: Travis Holeman and Peter Young, Luling, La., 418

5th: Mike Patterson and Brett Phillips, Rockport, Texas, 392

In FLW Redfish Series competition, 150 points are awarded to the winner, 149 for second, 148 for third, and so on. All teams that receive weight credit will receive points that determine team standings.

Logistics

Anglers will take off at 7 each morning from Saltwater Pavilion at Rockport Beach Park located at 210 Sea Breeze Drive in Rockport. Weigh-ins will also be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free, and the community is invited to attend the festivities.

The event is hosted by the Rockport-Fulton Area Chamber of Commerce.

The top 50 teams in the FLW Redfish Series based on Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year points standings at the end of the season will advance to the $300,000 Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Championship presented by BP Oct. 18-20 in Orange Beach, Ala. The winning team at the championship will earn as much as $100,000.

The full field competes during the first two days, and the top five teams based on accumulated weight advance to day three. Final standings are determined by the total weight from all three days. All FLW Redfish Series events are three-day tournaments (Thursday, Friday and Saturday).

Thursday’s conditions

Sunrise: 7:09 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 83 degrees

Expected high temperature: 91 degrees

Water temperature: 84 degrees

Tides (at Rockport, Texas): high 11:02 a.m.; low 9:54 p.m.

Wind: S at 7 mph

Maximum humidity: 79 percent

Day’s outlook: Partly cloudy; isolated showers in the morning; south winds 10 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon; chance of showers 10 percent