Garrison-Head dominate Galveston

Louisiana team pulls out Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series win by 2-7

GALVESTON, Texas – Brandon Garrison and Brennan Head proved they could handle the pressure of winning a Redfish Series event today. The Louisiana team again brought in the biggest two-fish limit of the day, 15 pounds, 6 ounces, to win the Redfish Series Western handily with a two-day total of 31 pounds, 2 ounces.

When Garrison, 29, and Head, 27, left the dock this morning, both had a lot on their young minds. They were looking to defend their day-one lead against a great deal of uncertainty, including a 75-mile boat ride and a precarious pond that could have locked the team out of their productive water with just a 3-inch tidal drop.

Garrison and Head handled the day with poise and focus – catching only two redfish, but two of the right-size fish – which put them in victory lane with a $25,000 winner’s purse.

“This is unbelievable,” Head said. “We are stoked. Being from Louisiana and winning in Texas is a big deal for us. There are so many good fishermen from Texas, and they come over and thump us in Louisiana all the time, so it’s good to win here.

“Also, it feels good to finally put everything together,” he added. “Brandon has won big on the Redfish Cup before, but I’ve never won a national event like this. We’ve been fishing together for a couple of years. We fish together great, and we’ve been so close before. So to finally get a win feels awesome, especially against this caliber of anglers. I just can’t tell you how experienced these guys are.”

The Louisiana team was running almost clear back to their home state, stopping just short of the Louisiana line, to fish each day.

“We found some water over there – small duck ponds and marsh – that reminded us a lot of where we fish back home,” Head said. “We felt real comfortable fishing there.”

The team found the small duck pond on Tuesday before the tournament.

“Brennan actually found the spot,” Garrison said. “I came over here for the last five weekends in a row and basically eliminated a lot of water.”

“Yeah, but Brandon poled his butt off today,” added Head humbly. “It’s so shallow in there, he had to really work the pole to move us around at all.”

The team sight-fished and caught all their keepers on 1/4-ounce Nemire Red Ripper spoons.

“We caught one first thing this morning,” Head said. “That really helped in calming us down and pumping us up. The bigger one didn’t come until later in the day, but that’s definitely the one that won it for us.”

Redden and Clancey second

Tim Redden of Houston and Tim Clancey of Adkins, Texas, bettered their weight today, bringing in two redfish weighing 14 pounds, 13 ounces to move to second place with a two-day total of 28 pounds, 11 ounces and collecting $8,200 in winnings.

The team was running about 30 miles to an area called East Bay and used a Mirror-Lure Top Pup in red and white to catch their fish.

“It got tougher on us today,” Redden said, “The water dropped out and it was harder to get around. The boat kept hitting bottom and spooking the fish. But we managed to catch two keepers. We had one other fish that was 28 and a quarter (inches); that one would have given us another two pounds and made it interesting.”

Nesloneys take third

David Nesloney Sr. and David Nesloney Jr., both of Rockport, Texas, finished third with a two-day total of 28 pounds and collected $6,324 in winnings.

The Nesloneys were making two-hour, 15-minute runs (one way) to the south to West Matagorda Bay. The team used gold spoons and Skitterwalk topwaters to catch their fish.

“We caught four keepers and four overs (the slot),” Nesloney said. “And the overs were barely over – but what can you do? It just wasn’t our time. We had a great tournament, and I don’t think we would have done anything different.”

Blodgett and Cearley fourth

Bill Blodgett of Dripping Springs, Texas, and Todd Cearley of Driftwood, Texas, finished fourth with a two-day total of 26 pounds, 3 ounces and collected $4,324 in winnings

The Texas team ran 25 miles to the south and fished current, eddies and baitfish pods.

“We were not sight-fishing.” Blodgett said. “The water here is too murky. We had to blind-cast to current breaks and breaking bait. Every now and then the reds would bust bait on top, and we took advantage of it.”

They caught their fish on 5-inch Hogie soft plastics rigged on 1/16-ounce jigheads.

Frazier and Dickinson fifth

Ralph Frazier of Dickinson, Texas, and Charles Parodoski of Sugarland, Texas, finished fifth with a two-day total of 26 pounds even and collected $3,050 in winnings.

Rest of the best

Steve Reupke of Corpus Christi, Texas, and Andy Mnichowski of Marrero, La., finished sixth with a two-day total of 25-11.

Danny Coppin and John Guerra, both of Belton, Texas, finished seventh with a two-day total of 23 pounds, 9 ounces.

Kurt Koliba of Port Lavaca, Texas, and Michael Shimeck of Bay City, Texas, finished eighth with a two-day total of 23 pounds, 6 ounces. Koliba and Shimeck now lead the Western points standings going into the final event at Venice, La.

Todd Adams and Tommy Ramzinski finished ninth with a two-day total of 22-5.

Chief Tauzin of Kingwood, Texas, and Clark Jordan of Pearland, Texas, finished 10th with a two-day total of 22-3.