Return to Normal???

Terry Sturgeon and Bill Lamb took 2nd in the Xtreme Redfish

In an earlier post I reported on the unusually solid redfish bite that some teams had enjoyed this winter with weights we haven't seen in Jacksonville since the pinched tail measurement was instituted. Lots of 13 lb sacks had been coming in with a few 14 lb limits and one over 15 lbs which was more like a Louisiana weight.

Now that spring is here things seem to be returning to normal and our weights have come down a bit. The second IFA/FLA Redfish Series challenged anglers with our typical gale force tournament winds and the results showed it with only Chris Holleman and AJ Hunter managing to break the 13lb mark for the win. Fred Rounsaville's 12lb average that he has been bringing in for months took 2nd and the rest of the top 5 were in the 11's. The results won't match these numbers but all in attendance agreed that the scales were about 1/2 lb per fish too light.

This last weekend saw the Xtreme Redfish Series kick off and the weights were again reasonable. Since this series allows live bait and isn't artificial lures only, I would expect a bit more weight to come to the scales so it did not surprise me that 14lbs took the win. The FLA's own Terry Sturgeon and Bill Lamb took 2nd place with 13.68lbs and Chris Holleman and his dad claimed 3rd with 13.07 lbs - the weights dropped off from there.

So, it appears that once again the standard 12 lb limit will be a good weight for getting a check and breaking 13 lbs should be knocking on the door for the win.

There are some hot streaks going on right now. Good job to Chris Holleman who took the win at the Cabelas Trout tournament, backed that up with a win in the IFA/FLA Redfish Series, and then claimed 3rd in the Xtreme Redfish last weekend. If you look back in the blogs I have posted about the history of Jacksonville tournament fishing you will see that Chris has done well at this game for a long time. Also, it was nice to see AJ Hunter get the win he has been waiting for. You also notice that Terry Sturgeon and Bill Lamb have been on top of the leaderboard as well a lot lately - it is great to see some different names up at the top this year. Seems like the FLA training regimen is paying off.