PORT ARANSAS, Texas — The Lone Star State has been mighty cordial to Easton Fothergill, both in freshwater and salt.
Late-March saw the Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series pro from Grand Rapids, Minn., win the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour at Lake Ray Roberts. Seven and a half months later, Fothergill teamed with Pearland, Texas, redfish pro Clark Jordan Jr. to lead Day 1 of the Yamaha Bassmaster Redfish Cup Championship presented by Skeeter at Port Aransas with a two-fish total of 17 pounds, 3 ounces.
“I’m having a blast learning all kinds of stuff about redfish from Clark,” said Fothergill, who previously had never caught this species. “It’s been a learning experience and every day, I get the hang of it a little more.”
In its fifth year, the Redfish Cup Championship fields 10 two-angler teams — six comprising all redfish anglers and four pairing a Bassmaster Elite pro with a redfish pro. With a catch-weigh-release format, each team is allowed to bring in two fish per day within the 20- to 28-inch Texas slot limit.
The first team to officially register a keeper fish, Fothergill and Jordan put a solid 7-pounder in the boat less than an hour after the 6:45 a.m. takeoff. The duo added another in the 7-pound range about an hour later and logged the day’s first 2-fish limit.
Shortly after 9, Fothergill stuck a 27 1/2-inch copper beauty that went 8-14 and culled out their first 7-pounder. A couple more culls got them to their total.
“Those were the best two fish we’ve caught all week, so it’s not like we’re on this quality fish,” Jordan said. “It just worked out today. When you have the Classic champ in the boat with you, things happen.
“We kind of over-achieved with what we expected to catch. We figured we’d have high 15-pound limits, but maybe this will help us for the rest of the tournament. Especially with (inclement) weather coming Sunday.”
Catching their fish with paddle tail swimbaits on lead head jigs, the leaders spent their day south of the John F. Kennedy Bridge, in the upper end of Laguna Madre. They chose this region because it tends to remain reasonably stable in a variety of weather conditions.
Jordan said he and Fothergill opted to trade quantity for quality by targeting areas likely to hold bigger fish. A discerning practice effort helped them identify areas with heavier fish and that allowed them to eliminate a lot of water.
“We talked about it prior to the event and this is a two-fish event and we have two anglers, so we both need one fish,” Jordan said. “We decided to fish our big stuff and swing for it.
“We could have gone to a spot and caught some 5- and 6-pounders early, but the conditions were good for fishing all day; so we just said, ‘Let’s get on our better stuff and hope for the best.’”
Fothergill said his freshwater power fishing prowess served him well, as he and Jordan covered large swaths of flats habitat to locate their fish.
“Chucking and winding is all that we were doing and I do that all the time in bass fishing, so it took a little while to dial in my cadence because we were drifting pretty fast with the boat — faster than I ever do bass fishing,” Fothergill said. “It took a little while to get a feel for what the redfish wanted, but once I got a couple bites, the confidence just kept growing.
“We got a couple of good bites really early and that got both of us feeling good right from the get-go. That’s a big deal up there because we’re not catching many fish. As long as we’re confident, I think good things will happen.”
Elite pro Tyler Williams and Chris Cenci are in second place with 15-1. Their big break came around 12:15 when Williams stuck a 27-inch fish that weighed over 7 pounds. This addition moved the team up from the bottom of BassTrakk’s unofficial standings to the No. 2 spot.
“You put me on fish and I can catch ’em here and there,” Williams said. “This is fun fishing; it’s something new to me. Probably the scariest part of this whole thing is trying to hold a redfish, they’re very slimy. Hopefully, we get to hold some more tomorrow.”
As Cenci explained, he and Williams started north of the Fisherman’s Wharf takeoff site, but after that area failed to impress, they ran south to the upper end of Laguna Madre. During practice, their better bites came in the southern area later in the morning, so the gave the northern area a look while waiting for the optimal southern period.
The anglers caught all of their redfish on Slayer, Inc. weedless jig heads and paddle tails. Their day-making fish came after a critical decision.
“I was about to move to another spot and Tyler said, ‘Let’s move over about 100 yards and make another drift,’” Cenci recalled. “That’s when he stuck the big one.”
Redfish pros Tony Vercillo and Darren Frost are in third place with 13-5. They also started on a spot north of takeoff and later ran south to the Laguna Madre.
Frost said the lagoon fish were more aggressive during practice, but despite a slower day, he and his partner remained optimistic with their main area. Vercillo surmised that the influence of Wednesday’s Beaver Moon — the year’s biggest and brightest moon — affected the fish and curtailed their feeding.
“The fish are there, we just need them to cooperate a little better,” Frost said.
The anglers ended up catching their better fish with a two-pronged strategy. Vercillo made long casts along the edge of a flat with a spoon, while Frost made shorter presentations and watched for possible sight-fishign targets with a Berkley Gulp! Shrimp on a jig head.
Saturday’s takeoff is scheduled for 6:45 a.m. CT at Fisherman’s Wharf. The weigh-in will be held at the Wharf at 2:45 p.m.
All of the action can be found live on Bassmaster.com as well as on Roku throughout the three-day event.
This event is being hosted by Port Aransas Fisherman’s Wharf.
