PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. – The Florida Panhandle red fishery showed what it is made of today during the day-one weigh-in of the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series tournament in Panama City.
This is the first time the Redfish Series has visited the Emerald Coast, and going into the Eastern Division event, many anglers figured a pair of redfish weighing 13 pounds would be a top-five limit.
But within the first few minutes of the weigh-in, 14-pound limits began to quickly fill out the top five positions. Then the team of Blair Wiggins of Cocoa, Fla., and Travis Tanner of Titusville, Fla., trumped those 14-pound limits with a pair of redfish holding down the scales at 15 pounds, 14 ounces for the lead.
Redfish Series anglers enjoyed a bright sunny day on the Gulf Coast today with a stiff 20-mph breeze out of the southeast, which made crossing large bays a little “sporty.”
Once staked down on their schools, however, the leading teams had little trouble enticing the Panhandle reds into biting. In fact, several teams commented on how cooperative the redfish were when compared to other more pressured venues in Florida.
The leading team of Wiggins-Tanner began the day with a 58-mile journey to the east of Panama City.
Once on their primary spot, they went to work sight-fishing a “broken school” in 3 ½ feet of water.
“When I first found these fish earlier in the week, they were in a giant thousand-fish school,” Wiggins said. “Since then the whole school has been broken up into a lot of little packs. There’s a bunch of singles, doubles and triples flashing around on this one flat like bright orange pumpkins.
“And actually, they are a little easier to fish being so broken up like that, because you can pick out the right-size fish and cast specifically to that fish. When they were all in one big wad, the little rats would be the first to your lure. With the school broken up in those smaller bunches, you can identify single fish and cast just to them.”
Wiggins and Tanner are using D.O.A. CAL series plastics in electric-chicken color. Wiggins noted that he is smothering the lures in Carolina Lunker Sauce for extra scent appeal.
“The place we’re fishing looks just like Mosquito Lagoon – where we are from – so Travis and I are real comfortable in there,” he added. “We feel right at home.”
Jackson-Espenlaub start in second
Frank Jackson of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Charles Espenlaub of Lutz, Fla., claimed the second-place spot after day one with 14 pounds, 7 ounces.
Jackson and Espenlaub made a 20-mile run to their fish this morning.
“When we first got there, we bumped the school up and they disappeared on us,” Jackson said. “But we decided to just stake down, be patient and wait them out. After a couple of hours, they started to show back up again, and we caught three of the right-size ones.”
The team used a D.O.A. Bait Buster to “match the hatch.”
“There are a lot of mullet in the area; we’re trying to use lures that mimic the mullet, and the Bait Buster was our best choice,” Jackson added.
Jackson also credited a new inshore fishing item called a Wang Anchor for keeping his boat in position.
“It’s like a Power-Pole, but it’s manual instead of remote control,” he said. “You have to drive the pole into the ground yourself, but it’s got a sharp point on it, so it’s pretty easy to do.”
Mulletts third
Ken and Jeff Mullett, both of Sarasota, Fla., are in third place with 14 pounds, 6 ounces.
The Mulletts are making about a 50-mile run and catching their fish on gold spoons.
“We’re catching about half of them just blind-casting the spoon and the other half sight-fishing with the spoon,” Mullett said.
Interestingly, the team has found single redfish easier to catch than the groups of redfish.
“There are some small groups of fish in our area, but those more school-oriented fish seem to spook out a lot easier than a single redfish just cruising across the flat.”
Nelson-Ramsey fourth
Brady Nelson and Josh Ramsey both of Palmetto, Fla., are in fourth place with 14 pounds, 2 ounces.
The team has been IFA Team of the Year in the Florida West Division for the last two years, mainly because both anglers like to redfish in the Panhandle so much.
“I love fishing up here,” said Nelson. “It’s beautiful, and these fish actually like to eat instead of just passing over your lure.”
The team stayed within 15 miles of the launch today to catch their fish.
“We were blind-casting Berkley Gulps and Johnson spoons,” Nelson said. “We weren’t really sight-fishing the actual fish; we were looking for wakes and mud boils where the fish were feeding.
McDonald-Creel fifth
Local anglers Raymond McDonald and Sean Creel, both of Panama City, Fla., rounded out the top five teams in fifth place after day one with 14 pounds, 1 ounce.
Day two of the FLW Redfish will begin Friday at 6 a.m. at Bay Point Marina in Panama City.
