Laramy-Hughes parry self-defeat for Fernandina lead
More former Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series champs take turn on top
FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – If someone ever pens rules for tournament redfishing, they can start with this one: consistency rules.
Day-two action in the FLW Redfish Series Eastern Division event in Fernandina saw a complete reshuffling of the top five. Thursday’s leaders busted, bumbled or merely blinked while those farther back in the pack rose to the occasion to take advantage of the falters.
Yesterday’s leaders, Jeff Hagaman and James Goodwin, brought in one keeper to the scales, dropping them to 18th.
Another former Redfish Series winning team, Scott Hughes of Punta Gorda, Fla., and Mike Laramy of Tampa, Fla., moved to the top on the strength of a 12-pound, 6-ounce catch to add to their day-one weight of 10-15 for a two-day total of 23-05.
Laramy and Hughes had to overcome extreme adversity today to get their heads back in the game and claim the lead.
“What a day,” said an exasperated Laramy. “We went to our first spot, our best spot for low tide, and caught a big fish and a small one right away. Then we moved to our high-tide spot and lost a big fish. At about that same time we discovered that our biggest fish in the livewell had died.
“Between losing the big fish and then having the other one die, I thought I was going to go Iaconelli,” Laramy laughed. “Like everyone out here, we take the utmost care of our fish. We’ve never had one die like that. I was just sick. And to make matters worse, the tide was coming back in, flooding the grass and making fishing really tough.”
“Somehow that adversity fueled us, though,” Hughes said. “We went back to our low-water spot with about an hour to go, and even though the tide was way high, we fished like mad men on a mission.”
The determination paid off. Despite a superhigh tide, the team boated their biggest redfish of the day with just minutes to spare, culling the small one.
“The irony of it is if we had caught 10 or 11 pounds early, we’d have probably gotten complacent and finished sixth,” Hughes noted. “But knowing we had dug ourselves a huge hole made us fish like we’ve never fished before, and at the end of the day, that out-of-nowhere miracle happened.”
Girle-Harris second
Chalk up yet another top-10 for the redfish team of Warren Girle of Long Boat Key, 
Fla., and Billy Harris of Bradenton, Fla.
Today, Girle and Harris brought in 12 pounds, 9 ounces for a two-day total of 22-13 to move into second place. That now makes five top-10 qualifications for this redfish team in the last eight regular-season events.
“We went back to our best spot from yesterday and just camped there all day,” Harris said. “We only caught three redfish, but we saw a couple more for tomorrow.”
Girle and Harris are staying close in the Nassau Sound area and are throwing Exude RT Slugs and Darts in golden bream to fish during the low-water window.
“The fish are in there, crashing bait and showing themselves,” Harris said. “We saw two more big ones that we tried to catch but couldn’t. Looking back on it, hopefully that was a blessing in disguise and maybe we can catch them tomorrow.”
Like other teams, Girle and Harris’ best fishing opportunities are coming from about 7 to 9:30 in the morning before the high tide floods the marshes.
Huestons riding to third
Brothers Ronald Hueston of Naples, Fla., and Chris Hueston of Miami grabbed third place today with a catch of 11 pounds, 13 ounces for a two-day total of 22-1.
The Huestons are riding the tides to stay in premium tidal windows throughout the day.
They are making an hour-long run to the south to capitalize on low water and then running all the way back up close to Fernandina to take advantage of the first part of the falling tide after it has peaked out.
“The low tide is a little later tomorrow, so we’re actually going to check a few places we haven’t been to yet on the way down in the morning,” Ronald Hueston said. “Hopefully we can score a big bonus fish on one of those places first thing to get the day started right.”
Hendrick-Gamrot fourth
Randy Hendrick of Clearwater, Fla., and Bret Gamrot of St. Petersburg, Fla., came 
from the farthest back (21st) to make the top five today, thanks to a 12-pound, 10-ounce catch that put them in fourth with a two-day total of 22-1.
Hendrick and Gamrot have also learned how to work both ends of the tide for success in Fernandina.
“Although our weight doesn’t show it, it was much tougher on us today,” Hendrick said. “We caught about 10 fish yesterday and only two today, including one in the last 10 minutes.”
“We have a low-tide spot for the mornings and a high-tide spot for the afternoons,” he continued. “And we caught one fish from each place today. It has literally taken me about eight years to figure out how to catch redfish on a high tide here. When the water floods the grass, it’s the most perplexing place you’ve ever seen, and I’ve finally learned how to make the best use of high tide, which has paid off in the last two days.”
Guthrie-Murphy fifth
Last year’s Jacksonville Redfish Series winners, Scott Guthrie of Jacksonville, Fla., and Rick Murphy of Homestead, Fla., just made the top-five cut by an ounce with 21-13.
And fortunately for the leaders, the Redfish Series is cumulative for three days and does not cut to zero on the last day, otherwise the leaders would have a rear-view mirror full of Guthrie and Murphy.
“We kind of stumbled yesterday,” Guthrie said. “And I’m still not real happy about it. Our problem yesterday was that the water was so low and the fish were so crowded that we couldn’t really control which fish hit our baits. We’d throw it to bigger ones, but the little ones would get it first, get hooked and then break up the whole party.”
Today, Guthrie noted more separation among the fish so he could pick on them individually based on size, which helped the team procure 12 pounds, 4 ounces as opposed to yesterday’s 9 pounds, 9 ounces.
The final day of the FLW Redfish Series Eastern gets under way at 6:15 a.m. Saturday at the public boat ramp located at the north end of Fourteenth Street.