ROCKPORT, Texas – Skipper Mock of South Padre Island, Texas, and Eddie Curry of Port Isabel, Texas, caught a three-day total of six redfish weighing 48 pounds, 9 ounces to win the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Western Division event in Rockport, Texas. Their top prize of $35,000 included a $15,000 Yamaha bonus.
“We’ve been close a lot of times, so it feels really good to win,” said Curry, who notched his first Redfish Series victory. “We don’t have any sponsors, so we do this out of our own pocket and it sure is nice to finally win one.”
Curry said he and Mock were fishing south of the JFK Causeway near Flower Bluff, and the run south took them about an hour and 15 minutes each day.
“That’s pretty much the only place we know to fish,” Curry said. “It’s a miserable place to fish and you’d never take your friends there, but when you catch one, it’s the right one.”
Curry said every fish the team caught during the tournament came on a white 4-inch Berkley Gulp! Saltwater Shrimp.
“It was just chunking and winding,” Curry said. “It was a whole lot of casting. I bet I reeled in 25 miles of line the first day.”
Rounding out the top five teams are Team Folgers pros Todd Adams and Tommy Ramzinsky, both of Rockport (six redfish, 48 pounds, 6 ounces, $15,803); Paul Heffernan of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, and David Green of Boerne, Texas (six redfish, 46 pounds, 15 ounces, $5,621); Jonathan Culpepper of Cypress, Texas, and Chris Culpepper of Houston, Texas (six redfish, 46 pounds, 13 ounces, $4,421) and Darrell Walter and Robert Walter, both of Rockport (six redfish, 44 pounds, 15 ounces, $2,871).
The $1.9 million 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.