ROCKPORT, Texas – Paul Heffernan of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, and David Green of Boerne, Texas, landed two redfish weighing 15 pounds, 3 ounces Friday to lead the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Western Division event in Rockport, Texas, with a two-day total of four redfish weighing 32-04. Teams are competing in the tournament for as much as $50,000 cash.
“The past two days we were on a school a fish,” said Heffernan, who is fishing in his fourth season of Redfish Series competition with Green. “Yesterday it got so much pressure, today’s a different story. Tomorrow’s going to have to be a whole new area for us, I guess.”
Heffernan said he had fished the Port Aransas area the first two days of the event, but local fishing pressure has forced him to rethink and relocate on the final day of competition.
“If we can get the fish deep down south, we’re fine,” Heffernan said. “We know where a couple of schools are. I want to find them and see what they eat when we do find them. We’ve been in the area for two or three weeks checking them out.”
Heffernan said the only way to get the fish to bite were on a Berkley Gulp! Saltwater Shrimp. Heffernan said color did not seem to matter. He said the fish came out of shallow sand holes during the first two days of competition and they look to catch fish in a similar way on the final day.
“We’re just going to go try and locate the schools and try to throw into them with spoons or Gulp! baits,” Heffernan said.
Rounding out the top five teams who will advance to the final round are Skipper Mock of South Padre Island, Texas, and Eddie Curry of Port Isabel, Texas (four redfish, 32 pounds, 3 ounces); Team Folgers pros Todd Adams and Tommy Ramzinsky, both of Rockport (four redfish, 31 pounds, 6 ounces); Jonathan Culpepper of Cypress, Texas, and Chris Culpepper of Houston, Texas (four redfish, 30 pounds, 11 ounces); Darrell Walter and Robert Walter, both of Rockport (four redfish, 30 pounds, 5 ounces).
Teams caught 109 redfish Friday weighing 670 pounds, 11 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 winning team will be determined Saturday based on the heaviest three-day accumulated weight.
Boats will launch from Saltwater Pavilion at Rockport Beach Park Saturday morning at 7 a.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.
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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.
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Awards are based on a full field of 125 boats in every tournament.