Team Morgan leads Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series event in Rockport

Two teams tied for second place

ROCKPORT, Texas – Hunter Morgan of Manvel, Texas, and Henry Morgan of Pearland, Texas, caught a two-redfish limit weighing 17 pounds, 4 ounces to lead day one of the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Western Division event in Rockport, Texas, where teams are competing for as much as $50,000.

“We went down to Laguna Madre first thing this morning looking for a school of fish that we had been on the last few weeks,” said Hunter Morgan, who is fishing with Henry in their fourth year of Redfish Series competition. “We found it right off the bat and were able to get two good fish early.”

Morgan said he was sight fishing the school in 4 feet of water and throwing a white 4-inch Berkley Gulp! Saltwater Shrimp.

“There’s four or five big schools in Laguna Madre right now that have been hanging in the same place,” Morgan said. “Fortunately, we found a good school that has a good number of keeper fish. Laguna Madre is just full of oversized fish right now.”

Morgan said the mental advantage of leading the tournament early will benefit him as the tournament progresses.

“It was a pretty easy day today,” Morgan said. “We kind of rolled around the rest of the day making the day go by before we headed back.

“Our goal has been to do whatever it takes to make a top-5 cut,” Morgan added. “We took a gamble, and it really paid off. It paid off early, and it took a little of the pressure off. Hopefully tomorrow we can go catch some good fish and fish on the final day.”

Rounding out the top five teams are Dwayne Eschete of Mandeville, La., and Blake Pizzolato of Montgomery, La. (two redfish, 17 pounds, 01 ounce); Paul Heffernan of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, and David Green of Boerne, Texas (two redfish, 17 pounds, 1 ounce); Jonathan Culpepper of Cypress, Texas, and Chris Culpepper of Houston, Texas (two redfish, 16 pounds, 9 ounces); Mike Patterson and Brett Phillips, both of Rockport (two redfish, 15 pounds, 14 ounces) and Richard Gidrey and Sam Celum, both of Corpus Christi, Texas (two redfish, 15 pounds, 14 ounces).

Teams caught 136 redfish Thursday weighing 840 pounds, 7 ounces.

Qualifying tournaments in the $1.9 million Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series – the most lucrative redfish tournament trail in the world – are three-day events. The full field will continue competition Friday, and the top five teams based on the heaviest combined weights from Thursday and Friday will advance to Saturday’s final round. The winning team will be determined Saturday based on the heaviest three-day accumulated weight.

Boats will launch from the Saltwater Pavilion at Rockport Beach Park each morning at 7 a.m. Friday’s weigh-in will be held at the Saltwater Pavilion at Rockport Beach Park beginning at 3 p.m. The final weigh-in will be held Saturday at the Wal-Mart store located at 2401 Highway 35 North in Rockport beginning at 4:30 p.m.

The FLW Redfish Series consists of two divisions – Eastern and Western – and the $318,500 Redfish Open. Each division is comprised of four $170,000 qualifying tournaments. The top 50 teams from each division based on Land O’Lakes Team of the Year standings will advance to the no-entry-fee $300,000 Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Championship to be held Oct. 30-Nov. 1 in Biloxi, Miss. The championship winner will take home as much as $100,000.

Tournament anglers aren’t the only ones winning big this season. With the introduction of FLW Fantasy Fishing™, FLW Outdoors® offered anyone the opportunity to enter for their chance to land the catch of a lifetime with the opportunity to win $7.3 million in cash and prizes. Players could become a virtual pro angler by signing up for Player’s Advantage, which provided them with exclusive insider information that could have guided them to a $100,000 victory at every Wal-Mart FLW Tour® stop and the Forrest Wood Cup. Player’s Advantage gave them an edge over the competition and increased their shot for the $1 million cash grand prize awarded to the FLW Fantasy Fishing cumulative points winner. Visit FantasyFishing.com today to find out more information and to register for next season.

Coverage of the FLW Redfish Series stop in Rockport will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program airing Oct. 19. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast in Canada on WFN (World Fishing Network) and to more than 429 million households in the United Kingdom, Europe, Russia, Australia, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East through a distribution agreement with Matchroom Sport, making it the most widely distributed fishing program in the world. The program airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time in most markets. Check local listings for times in your area.

FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. In 2008 alone the organization is offering more than 90,000 anglers the chance to win over $40 million through 230 tournaments in 10 circuits targeting bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass. FLW Outdoors is also taking fishing mainstream with the largest cash awards in the history of fantasy sports, $7.3 million.

For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.

Awards are based on a full field of 125 boats in every tournament.