FLW Redfish Series to visit Florida

March 02 , 2007

TITUSVILLE, Fla. — The Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Eastern Division will make its second of four $200,000 regular-season stops March 22-24 in Titusville, Fla. The lucrative tournament will feature as many as 150 redfish teams casting for a top award of $25,000 cash, guaranteed, and $25,000 in Ranger, Yamaha and Evinrude bonuses.

“The water level in the lagoon is as low as a lot of people have seen it in a lot of years,” said Team Tylenol pro Billy Harris of Bradenton, Fla., who, along with teammate Warren Girle, of Longboat Key, Fla., finished 10th at the Titusville stop in 2006. “That could be a good thing, because a lot of the fish will be grouped up in the pools and depressions. And you may get lucky — if you find one, you find a hundred.”

On the other hand, Harris said a rising water level would disperse fish among the flats and fishermen would be searching for single and double fish as well as schools.

“While lower water levels may make locating fish a little easier, it can make navigation a little bit trickier,” Harris said. “We'll be running that Ranger Phantom, and more often than not, when you run that thing aground, when the two guys jump off the boat, it floats again and is real easy to get going again.”

Harris said that no-motor zones and idle-only zones in the Indian River Lagoon will help anglers in their search for a tournament limit.

“To me, it seems like it's easier to approach the fish in the lagoon — whether it's by push-poling, trolling motor or drifting,” Harris said. “Around where I'm from, we'll have schools of fish that you can't get within two casts of because they feel the presence of the boats and they're so spooky.”

Anglers will take off at 7:30 Eastern time each morning from Sand Point Park located at 101 N. Washington Ave. in Titusville. Weigh-ins will also be held at the marina beginning at 4:30 p.m. daily. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free, and the community is invited to attend the festivities.

The Titusville FLW Redfish Series event is hosted by the Space Coast Office of Tourism.

The winning team will receive a top award of $25,000. If Ranger contingency guidelines are met, the winning team will also receive a $12,500 cash bonus. If Yamaha or Evinrude contingency guidelines are met, the winning team will receive an additional $12,500 cash bonus for a total of $50,000.

The top 50 teams in the FLW Redfish Series based on points standings at the end of the season will advance to the $300,000 Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Championship presented by BP Oct. 18-20 in Orange Beach, Ala. The winning team at the championship will earn as much as $100,000.

In FLW Redfish Series competition, 150 points are awarded to the winner, 149 for second, 148 for third, and so on. All teams that receive weight credit will receive points that determine team standings. All FLW Redfish Series events are three-day tournaments (Thursday, Friday and Saturday). The full field competes during the first two days, and the top five teams based on accumulated weight advance to day three. Final standings are determined by the total weight from all three days.

Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail presented by Abu Garcia, Ranger Owners Tournament Championship Series, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses of nearly $43 million through 238 events in 2007.

Wal-Mart and many of America's largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world's leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.

For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, browse FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.

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