Stealing the bacon
Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series win in Fernandina still up for grabs
FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – With just a pound and a half separating first place from fifth in the top five teams at the Redfish Series Eastern event out of Fernandina Beach, most teams agree that it’s still anyone’s game.
“No lead is safe here,” said Scott Guthrie of Jacksonville, Fla., who is currently in the fifth position. “The weights are so inconsistent from day to day; any team in this top five can win today.”
Guthrie notes that redfish in this part of Florida are different because they don’t school by certain size.
“In other parts of Florida, redfish tend to segregate by size,” he explained. “The 2- to 3-pounders run together. The 6- to 7-pounders run together. But here, when these fish collect in the back of tidal creeks on the low tide, you can have fish from 2 to 10 pounds all grouped together. That’s why a team will catch 9 pounds one day and 12 the next as opposed to 11 each day. When a variety of sizes are all crunched together like that, there’s little control over which fish gets your bait – it’s like steal the bacon, and sometimes the small fish wins.”
And stealing the bacon is exactly what Guthrie and team partner Rick Murphy have 
in mind today – as in stealing the bacon from current leaders Scott Hughes and Mike Laramy.
Hughes and Laramy are fishing a fairly well-known community hole down near the St. Johns River.
“We were going to take our small boat today because it’s so shallow down there, but we opted for the big one so we could get down there faster,” Hughes said. “Where we’re fishing is not exactly a secret, and locals could be a factor, so we feel the need for speed.”
Even though their spot is known by many other anglers, no other teams have fished in there this week.
“We were told that the fish in there were too beat up by locals and too hard to catch,” Hughes added. “We decided to be hard-headed and try it anyway, and it has worked out so far.”
Lurking just behind Hughes-Laramy is the team of Warren Girle and Billy Harris, who are definitely looking to filch a little pork of their own.
While Hughes-Laramy and Guthrie-Murphy are past Redfish Series winners, Girle-Harris is still looking for a first “W.”
“I put some time in up here,” Girle said. “I practiced here seven days straight. Billy and I are ready to win one of these things.”
Will someone steal the bacon today?
The final weigh-in begins at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Fernandina Beach Wal-Mart.
Saturday’s conditions
Sunrise: 6:27
Temperature at takeoff: 79 degrees
Water temperature: 85 degrees
Expected high temperature: 92 degrees
Wind: SE at 10-20 mph
Tides: low: 6:39 a.m. high: 1:08 p.m.
Day’s outlook: sunny, breezy and hot