Thomason-Ordes go home for early lead

Louisiana redfish team scores 17-11 for lead at FLW Redfish Series Championship

BILOXI, Miss. – Louisiana redfish pros Charlie Thomason of Covington and Britt Ordes of Slidell love it when a plan comes together.

On day one of the Walmart FLW Redfish Series Championship, their redfish plan of running back to their home waters of Hopedale, La., catching two upper slot redfish quickly and returning safely to check-in with plenty of time to spare went off without a hitch.

“I guide in Hopedale,” Thomason said. “I know those waters well, so that’s where we went. We caught four fish; two were the right size, so we headed back.”

The team’s two reds totaled 17 pounds, 11 ounces, good enough for the day-one lead.

“It was a perfect run over there; it took about an hour and 40 minutes,” Thomason said. “We sight-fished for about an hour, picked out the right ones to catch, and our fishing day was over. We took it easy coming back and sat here at the dock for about three hours waiting for weigh-in to start.”

Thomason noted that the key was to get as far back into the ponds as possible where the bigger redfish could be easily seen.

As for tomorrow, the team hopes to do it all over again.

Chagnard-Adams second

Two-time Redfish Series winners Ray Chagnard and Edward Adams – both of Metairie, La. – are just an ounce off the lead with two redfish for 17 pounds, 10 ounces.

The redfish team made the long haul all the way to Venice, La., to catch their fish.

“It took about two hours to get there and every bit of three hours to get back,” Chagnard said. “It took about two hours and 15 minutes to catch our fish.”

The team started the day by sight-fishing along a shallow bank and then moved out to a rock pile to try for upgrades.

“It’s all in the weather’s hands,” Chagnard said of his team’s chances to win. “The rougher it is, the less time we have to fish. And it’s not like we can just pull up and start catching slot fish and be done in 30 minutes. We need two to three hours to actually cull through some fish to get that kind of weight. So if it’s smooth, it will increase our fishing time, and our chances of getting higher weight will go up. But if it’s nasty, then our fishing time will dwindle and we’ll have to take what we can get.”

Team M&M’s third

M&M’s team Dwayne Eschete of Mandeville, La., and Blake Pizzolato of Montgomery, La., are in third place after day one with two redfish weighing 17 pounds, 8 ounces.

The M&M’s team made a 103-mile run to Venice’s South Pass this morning and worked through about 10 fish to amass their creel.

“We’re fishing a shallow sandbar in about a foot and a half of water, and it’s a numbers game for us,” Eschete said. “We have to go through quite a few fish, including some overs, to dial it our weight. If the wind does not get up too bad tomorrow, we should be able to do it again.”

Gidrey-Celum fourth

The Texas redfish team of Richard Gidrey and Sam Celum, both of Corpus Christi, Texas,are in fourth place with two redfish for 17 pounds, 4 ounces.

Gidrey and Celum are the first anglers on the leaderboard to be fishing close to Biloxi.

“We’re fishing about 12 miles from here,” Gidrey said. “We’ve located three or four schools of nice reds close to here, and one of those schools probably has a hundred redfish in it.”

“We are able to sight-fish most of them,” he added. “And we probably caught 10 redfish today.”

Hendrick-Wittman and Granger-Holstman tied for fifth

The Florida redfish team of Randy Hendrick of Clearwater and Chris Wittman of Fort Myers is tied with the redfish team of Sonny Granger and Eric Holstman, both of Pensacola, Fla., at 17 pounds, 2 ounces.

Day two of the FLW Redfish Series Championship in Biloxi will begin at 7 a.m. Friday from the Isle of Capri Casino.