Guthrie and Murphy win Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series event in Mayport

MAYPORT, Fla. - Scott Guthrie of Jacksonville and Rick Murphy of Homestead caught a two-day total of four redfish weighing 26 pounds, 4 ounces to win $37,500 in the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Eastern Division event powered by Tyson. The team earned $25,000 plus an additional $12,500 for the Powered by Yamaha award. Guthrie and Murphy were competing in Mayport against a field of 143 teams.

“We planned on sight fishing early, but it was overcast and a little windy, so that pattern was tough,” Guthrie said. “We did manage to get one keeper early this morning though.” After catching their first keeper, Guthrie said the team had a long dry spell, but finally broke it when they caught their second fish from a shallow flat just two feet away from the boat on a soft-plastic crab.

Anglers had mildly overcast skies and temperatures in the high 70s for the final day of the tournament.

Rounding out the top five teams are Ken Weinstein and Fred Grey, both of Jacksonville (four redfish, 23 pounds, 8 ounces, $10,600); Randall Padgett and Danny Brown, both of Jacksonville (four redfish, 23 pounds, 6 ounces, $5,850); Scott O’Brien and Wade Hastings, both of Jacksonville (four redfish, 23 pounds, 3 ounces, $4,850); and Richard Huletts and James Scully, also both of Jacksonville (four redfish, 23 pounds, $4,400).

Anglers caught and released a total of 224 redfish weighing 575 pounds, 4 ounces on the final day of the tournament.

FLW Redfish Series qualifying tournaments are two-day events. The entire field competes Friday and Saturday, and the winning team is determined Saturday based on the heaviest two-day accumulated weight.

The next FLW Redfish Series Eastern Division event will be held July 22-23 in Charlotte Harbor.

The FLW Redfish Series consists of two divisions ? East and West. Each division is comprised of four events with a $200,000 purse for each event. The top 100 teams ? 50 from each division after four qualifying events ? will qualify for the three-day, no-entry-fee $300,000 Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Championship to be held in Mobile, Ala., Oct. 27-29. The championship winner will take home as much as $100,000.

Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and seven other national tournament circuits offering a combined $30 million in awards through 214 events in 2005. The 27-year-old organization is the purveyor of America’s largest and most prestigious fishing tournaments, including the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series.

For more information on FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, explore FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.

Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1997 and today is the title sponsor of all FLW Outdoors events. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.

+For more infomation, click www.FLW Outdoors.com.

Posted by DODGE at April 30, 2005 04:01 PM in Tournament (FLW), Tournament (U.S. others)