ESPN Tournaments

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — Even with tough conditions on Day One of the 2009 Redfish Cup season opener in Punta Gorda, Fla., Jeff Totten and Ozzie Lessinger were surprised to find themselves in the lead after bringing 13.20 pounds of redfish to the scales.

"I thought we would be somewhere between seventh and 12th place at the end of the day," Lessinger said. "You hear those stories of anglers catching 14 or 14.5 pounds running up to Tampa or Sarasota and it just didn't happen today. My thought was since we live around here, why should I run that far when I have places around here that I know?"

On a day that saw 12 two-man teams fail to cross the Redfish Cup stage, Lessinger and Totten brought in the only 13-pound bag and lead by a slim margin over Dwayne Eschete and Mark Sepe, who hold down second place with 12.90 pounds.

Brothers Ron and Chris Hueston returned to Redfish Cup competition in 2009 and landed in third place after Day One with their 11.96-pound bag of redfish. Rounding out the top five were Alex Suescun and Mike Laramy in fourth with 11.93 pounds and Trey Newton and Al Keller in fifth with 11.83 pounds.

Totten and Lessinger are local anglers with intimate knowledge of the water around the launch at Laishley Park in Charlotte Harbor. Totten has been fishing the Punta Gorda waters since he was 16 and that experience told the two anglers that they needed to stay close to home in the rough water.

"A lot of guys didn't make the run or if they did, they didn't have enough time to fish with it being as rough as it was in the Gulf," Lessinger said. "The bay, blowing 15 miles an hour, it wasn't a problem. The biggest problem for guys was the tide and the fact that it is really hard to catch a legal fish out of the really big schools."

A redfish has to measure between 18 and 27 inches in length to be considered legal for the tournament. The common sentiment around the weigh-in seemed to be that fish outside those measurements were more common than keepers. On top of the length issue, anglers also had to contend with unfavorable tides.

"Tide for us here is extremely important," Lessinger said. "I knew going into it what these tides were going to look like. Monday and Tuesday had really strong incoming tides and an outgoing tide, now this weekend the tide has been weak. It spreads the fish out and they don't seem to feed really well."

The early tides will put a premium on anglers capitalizing on a morning bite on what Lessinger says will be a, "fair amount of incoming tide in the morning."

Getting off to a good start on Day Two will be the priority for the first-place team as they look to rebound from an inconsistent finish here in 2008. After weighing in strong on Day One last year, Totten and Lessinger struggled on Day Two and dropped to a disappointing 10th place on their home waters. Both anglers look to stay consistent this time around, aiming for 12 pounds on Saturday to stay in the hunt as the top five teams make the cut to fish on Sunday's final day.

Sepe, part of the defending champion team at Punta Gorda last year, is fishing with new teammate Dwayne Eschete and approached Day One differently than the leaders, choosing instead to make the long run to big schools of fish.

"We fished a big school today and we're not sure, depending on the weather, what we are doing tomorrow," Sepe said. "There were 14 boats there and we were one of the only ones that caught a fish. Fishing in a crowd, it is all about presentation and no one else was fishing like we were."

Like Lessinger, Sepe recognized the importance of the tides to the fish activity, but also threw in one additional variable that helped the team today: wind.

"With that West wind today, we had a little artificial tide — we had a movement of water up," Sepe said. "As the water moves in, the fish feed, but that stale tide makes it much more difficult to catch them. You can find them, but the bait doesn't move across the flats. I saw the fish feeding all day, crushing bait, but depending on how the wind blows, it's critical to look at the tide and the wind."

With consistency being such a big part of success in Punta Gorda, Sepe said to look for only 21 pounds to make the cut for two days of fishing when anglers usually need closer to 24 pounds. As to whether they will be able to boat the necessary weight to stay in the top five, Sepe pointed to their success in a crowd and the fact that they didn't overthink their gameplan as keys to doing well on back-to-back days of fishing.

Rounding out the top three teams were the Hueston brothers, getting a warm reception back to the Redfish Cup after taking a few years off.

"We are glad to be back," Chris Hueston said. "We know 90 percent of the field and we hope to show off our talent like we did back then. We are back this year and hoping to make a statement. Not trying to step on any toes or trying to be a big shot, we just want to showcase our talents."

Like the leaders, their talents extended to areas near the take-off and they ran a small boat near the harbor fishing holes they were familiar with over the last 10 years. The day didn't get off to a great start, as Chris lost one of his rods out of the rod holders first thing in the morning. Then Ron lost his brand new hat.

"They say bad luck comes in threes, so Ron rubbed his lucky rock a few times and it seemed to work" Chris said. "By 9 o' clock, we had about 10 pounds in our little boat. Tomorrow we might have to give that rock a few more rubs and then head to some spots that we know we can catch a fish and try to pull in 10 to 11 pounds. We know that if you catch close to what you caught one day one or better it, you are going to move up."

The full field of 55 two-man teams fishes Saturday, with the top five based on combined weight moving on to Sunday's final round. All the action continues with the weigh-in at Laishley Park starting at 3:00 p.m. ET and full coverage of all Redfish Cup events is on RedfishCup.com.

Day One Results From Punta Gorda, Fla.

1	Jeff Totten - Ozzie Lessinger	13.20
2	Dwayne Eschete - Mark Sepe	12.90
3	Ron Hueston - Chris Hueston	11.96
4	Alex Suescun - Mike Laramy	11.93
5	Trey Newton - Al Keller	11.83
6	Richard Freund - Ralph Frazier	11.14
7	Tadd Van Demark - Kevin Shaw	11.00
8	Chris Cenci - Tommy Derringer	10.89
9	Charlie Thomason - Shane Pescay	10.75
10	Ray Van Horn - C.A. Richardson	10.73
11	Joe Crosby - Rick Steckelberg	10.34
12	Paul Jueckstock - Manny Perez	10.06
13	Greg DeVault - Bill DeVault	10.05
14	Nick Georgeopoulos - Shannon Haskell	9.90
15	Bryan Watts - Greg Watts	9.78
16	John Ochs - David Crews	9.73
17	Robert Scherer - Blaine Friermood	9.21
18	Travis Holeman - Bryan Holeman	9.11
19	Kevin Broussard - Cajun Phil Broussard	8.91
20	Chief Tauzin - Clark Jordan	8.70
21	Scott Hughes - Mat Haag	7.99
22	Eric Taylor - Eric Holstman	7.82
23	Jason Keating - Keith McBride	7.80
24	Mike Friday - Danny Latham	7.72
25	Bill Pittman - Scott O'Brien	7.60
26	Chris Wittman - Tom Winrow	7.46
27	Joey Sostheim - Pete Turner	7.26
28	Erik Rue - Larry Puckett	7.12
29	Jon Loring Jr. - Ray Malone	6.94
30	Sam Bertha Jr - Gary McKenzie	6.67
31	Cody Chivas - Kyle Chivas	6.42
32	Jeff Pope - Brandon Buckner	6.20
33	Bill Faulkner - Kevin Mihailoff	5.69
34	Andrew Bostick - John Landry	5.47
34	Tim Young - Jason Catchings	5.47
36	Paul Chavis - Blaine Peterson	5.34
37	Chuck Howard - CJ Howard	4.64
38	Sonny Granger - Jake Matney	4.51
39	Mike Frenette - Michael Frenette	4.20
40	Ken Chambers - John Merriwether	3.42
41	Jarrett Lombard - Leland Symonds	3.32
42	Roland Martin - Steve Loyd	2.68
43	Scott Ritter - Robert 'Bobby' Abruscato	2.62
44	Ben Alderman - Ronnie Pitts	0.00
44	John Henninger - Warren Girle	0.00
44	Jason Hughey - Matt Ingram	0.00
44	Bo Johnson - Mike Del Duca	0.00
44	Jimmy Lloyd - Terry Thomas	0.00
44	Rick Murphy - Geoffrey Page	0.00
44	Jim Prado - Steve Auld	0.00
44	Heath Seckel - Brian Ulch	0.00
44	Terry Seagraves - Sam Swett	0.00
44	Ryan Sweezy - Randy Weaver	0.00
44	Kris Walter - Randy Hendrick	0.00
44	Blair Wiggins - Travis Tanner	0.00