Repeat performance

Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series leaderboard largely unchanged as top-five cut announced

COCODRIE, La. – What a difference a day makes. Not. While many redfish anglers struggled to match Thursday’s stellar weights, the top-three teams had no trouble picking up right where they left off. In fact, by the time Friday’s weigh-in was officially in the books, the leaderboard looked almost identical to yesterday’s standings – at least at the very top.

For the second day in a row, the team of Andy Mnichowski and John McGill finished in first place. While the team didn’t quite duplicate Thursday’s massive 16-pound, 8-ounce catch, they did manage to bring a whopping two-day total of 32 pounds, 5 ounces to the scales – good enough to make the cut and grab the top qualifying position heading into tomorrow’s finals.

And they made it look easy.

“We’ve had a bit of bad luck lately, but we managed to catch a big fish early and that helped,” said Mnichowski, who hails from Marrero, La. “After that we went back to (yesterday’s) spot but we only caught a bunch of small fish. So we decided to go back to the same spot that we went to first and we’re lucky enough to catch another big fish there. We decided to cut our fishing short with about an hour and a half left. It was a bit of a gamble, but normally the weights are smaller the second day so we decided to take the risk.”

Clearly it paid off. Not only did Mnichowski and McGill grab the top qualifying spot, but they also managed to avoid beating up their fish heading into tomorrow’s all-important finals.

“We’re going with the same game plan tomorrow,” said McGill, of Slidell, La. “We feel really good heading into (Saturday).”

Mnichowski, who acknowledged that his team plans to make the same 200-mile round trip tomorrow, agreed that things are looking up.

“Both of our spots (somewhere between Venice and Empire, La.) are only five minutes apart,” said Mnichowski. “And hopefully we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing. Our goal is to put 15 pounds in the boat as quickly as we can tomorrow and go from there.”

Team Berkley maintains firm grasp on second place

Brothers Kris and Jonathan Culpepper continued their hot streak in today’s competition after landing a two-day catch totaling 32 pounds. In the process, they not only qualified for the finals in second place, but they also remained within realistic striking distance of first place – in addition to having a chance at back-to-back Redfish Series tournament titles.

“We didn’t see as many fish today and we only caught about 12 keepers,” said Kris, whose team also took home the Redfish Series trophy at last month’s Western Division event at Port Aransas, Texas. “But even though the fish weren’t really active, we got two good fish to bite. We feel good about our chances, but this is definitely going to be a hard tournament to win.”

Practice makes perfect for Glueck and Roy

With 10 days of practice under the belt, the team of Gerry Glueck and Brent Roy were once again able to demonstrate the power of consistency – holding down third place for the second day in a row while qualifying for tomorrow’s finals.

“We’re really excited,” said Roy, whose team managed a two-day total of 30 pounds, 12 ounces. “Coming back today, I figured we’d make the top 10, but we weren’t sure we’d qualify for the top-five cut.”

Glueck and Roy, like many of the other teams, have plans to make yet another long run – approximately 200 miles round trip – in tomorrow’s competition as well.

“I’m a guide in Venice so we decided to make a long run to be able to fish in my home waters,” said Roy.

Only 1 pound, 9 ounces off the lead, both teammates said they are really looking forward to tomorrow’s competition.

“It’s just awesome,” said Glueck. “It’s a great feeling.”

Best of the rest

The father-son team of Robert and Darrell Walter – both of Rockport, Texas – turned in a two-day catch of 30 pounds, 4 ounces to qualify for the finals in fourth place. While the team of Billy Nicholas (San Marcos, Texas) and Danny Adams (Rockport, Texas) finished with identical weights, they technically qualified for the finals in fifth place due to tournament tiebreaking procedures.

The final day of Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series action at Cocodrie, La., will commence during tomorrow’s takeoff, scheduled to take place at 6 a.m. at Coco Marina located at 106 Pier 56 in Cocodrie, La.