Wiggins-Tanner vault into FLW Redfish Series lead

Veteran anglers reunite, grab 1-pound lead heading into Saturday’s final day of competition on Florida’s Gulf Coast

SARASOTA, Fla. – Maybe retirement wasn’t in the cards after all.

After hanging up his redfish tackle and announcing his retirement from the sport immediately after winning the 2006 Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Championship, Capt. Blair Wiggins of Cocoa, Fla., stormed back onto the tournament scene with a vengeance. Using a two-day catch of 29 pounds, 6 ounces, Wiggins and his partner Travis Tanner of Titusville, Fla., out-dueled the rest of the field on day two of Redfish Series competition to grab the overall lead heading into tomorrow’s finals.

Not surprisingly, the turn of events couldn’t have been sweeter for the team.

“It really feels great,” said Wiggins, who only started fishing competitively last month at the FLW Redfish Series event at Punta Gorda, Fla., after more than a year’s absence from the professional tournament scene. “It’s just amazing – especially after being away for a year. The jitters are still there. But to be able to come back like this in only my second tournament (since retirement) is just awesome.”

Over the past year, Wiggins said he used the time to recuperate both mentally and physically.

“Basically, I left the tournament scene because a job opportunity came up and it consumed a lot of my time,” said Wiggins. “I wound up starting my own fishing school. But I also used the last year to get my knees fixed. Now I’m in a lot better shape.”

Another side benefit to his short-lived retirement was hooking up once more with his one-time fishing partner, Travis Tanner.

“I’m back with Travis, who was my original partner from the old IFA days,” he said. “He’s just a great fisherman.”

To be sure, the duo had no idea what to expect heading into the Sarasota event. But while pre-fishing didn’t go as planned for the team, the first day of actual competition changed the dynamics of the tournament for good.

“Our pre-fishing didn’t go very well for us and we weren’t catching any real big fish in the beginning,” said Tanner. “So we decided to go to totally new water once the tournament started. On that first day, we started popping fish early and that really set the tone for us. Within five minutes, we already had two nice fish in the boat. It was just a great way to start.”

At the end of day one, the team of Wiggins and Tanner were in fourth place. However, thanks to another stellar catch on Friday, the duo found themselves atop the leaderboard heading into Saturday’s final day of competition.

“We’re fishing about three spots – one as far as 30 miles away and one that’s pretty close to the marina,” said Tanner. “We probably caught 14 keepers today and had a pretty good weight in the boat at around 1 p.m. But the tide is everything here. With one of our spots, if the tide isn’t right, you might as well not even try fishing it.”

According to Tanner, the team is targeting redfish with a combination of DOA Cal Series lures and Mirrodines suspending twitch baits. Not surprisingly, the team doesn’t plan on changing up a thing in tomorrow’s competition.

“It’s worked for us for two days, let’s go for three,” said Tanner. “If we can just capitalize on our strikes, we’ll be in good shape.”

Page-Brantley snare second

After suffering through some horrendous misfortunate during the first FLW Redfish Series event of the 2008 season, the team of Geoffrey Page of Venice, Fla., and Terry Brantley of Arcadia, Fla., is once again hitting their stride. Using a two-day catch of 28 pounds, 7 ounces, the duo leapfrogged from fifth place in Thursday’s competition to second place heading into the finals.

“We had never weighed in over 14 pounds in a tournament before and we finally did it yesterday – and we’re still in fifth place,” said Brantley. “We’re happy to make the cut, but the key is being in first place tomorrow.”

At the very least, grabbing a spot in the finals at the Sarasota event has allowed the team to forget most, if not all, of the headaches they faced during last month’s FLW Redfish Series Punta Gorda tournament.

“We’re close to making the cut there, but one fish was close (to the slot limit) so we decided to measure it right before heading back to weigh-in,” said Brantley. “We went to measure the fish and it bounced off the boat and landed back in the water. Basically, we dropped a 7-pound redfish overboard. Obviously, we didn’t make the cut.”

However, this time around, things are looking much brighter. Less than 1 pound off the lead, the team plans to go for broke during Saturday’s finals.

“I was born and raised here and I also guide here,” said Page. “So this tournament would mean a lot to me. The number of top-five finishes we’d had over the years is amazing. But now we want to finally win one. I’m tired of losing to my friends. I want to win. I don’t want another second through fifth place.”

According to Page, the team has targeted redfish on drop-offs and shorelines on Sarasota Bay with a Bass Assassin jerkbait with a ¼-ounce head. But the key to the team’s success appears to be the depth they are fishing.

“It was a tough day today. We had zero fish in the boat at noon,” said Page. “So we decided to go to a deeper spot and start fishing in about 6 feet of water. Then, from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m., we landed our big fish.”

And what about tomorrow?

“I’m worried about the weather tomorrow,” said Page. “I’m not sure we can bring in the same size stringer we caught today. But I’ll tell you what. We’re going to scrap and claw all day. Hopefully, we can finally win one of these things.”

Benson-Ryan net third place

The team of Daniel Benson of Brandon, Fla., and Matthew Ryan of Belleair Bluffs, Fla., parlayed a total catch of 27 pounds, 14 ounces into the third-place qualifying position heading into the finals.

However, it wasn’t easy.

“Yesterday, we had our area all to ourselves, but today we had about eight to 10 boats around us,” said Benson. “Yesterday, we had a good limit at about 8:15 a.m., but today, we didn’t get our big fish until 2:30 p.m. We’re pretty nervous early on. But we battled hard for four to five hours and it finally paid off.”

According to Benson, his team is only traveling a little more than 3 miles to their prime fishing location, targeting redfish on gold spoons and 4-inch Berkley Gulp sinking minnows.

Best of the rest

The team of Roger Crafton of Boca Grande, Fla., and John Ochs of Englewood, Fla., moved up from fifth place to fourth place with a total catch of 27 pounds, 13 ounces.

Rounding out the top-five finalists was the team of John Henninger of Jacksonville, Fla., and John Eggers of Jacksonville Beach, Fla. The duo used a total catch of 27 pounds, 9 ounces to vault from ninth place to a spot in the Saturday’s finals.

“We really struggled all day today,” said Eggers. “But we were able to catch some fish right at the end of the day. And that really helped us.”

Other notables

Day-one leaders Tadd VanDemark and Kevin Shaw suffered through some tough luck today, dropping all the way down to 17th place overall by the end of today’s competition.

“We worked hard all day but it was tough out there,” said VanDemark, whose team netted a two-day stringer weighing 24 pounds. “We had a bit of company that we didn’t have yesterday. And we got stuck about six times. I also fell off a platform into the water. That’s why I’m wearing this rain suit right now. It was just a tough day.”

Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series action continues at Saturday’s takeoff, scheduled to take place at 7:30 a.m. at the Centennial Park/10th Street Boat Ramp in Sarasota, Fla.