ESPN Tournaments

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — From start to finish, the 2009 Redfish Cup season opener in Punta Gorda was all about local anglers Ozzie Lessinger and Jeff Totten.

On the final day, their 13.64-pound bag of redfish was over 3 pounds better than their closest competitors, easily earning them the $40,000 first-place prize and 56 points toward the race to be Academy Sports + Outdoors Team of the Year presented by Crocs.

"We stuck with the same game plan as yesterday," Lessinger said. "On the first drift we didn't see a single fish. I told Jeff that we needed to have a little faith and do it again. On our second drift we started seeing fish and that was the tournament."

The decision to stick around proved to be the right one as Lessinger and Totten walked away with their first Redfish Cup victory. The next biggest bag of Day Three weighed in at 10 pounds even, and belonged to Joe Crosby and Rick Steckelberg, good enough for second place.

Third place belonged to Richard Freund and Derek Carlson, with a final-day weight of 9.60 pounds. Travis and "Cajun" Phil Broussard stayed in fourth after putting up a two-fish limit that hit the scales at 9.39 pounds. Rounding out the top five teams fishing the final day were brothers Chris and Ron Hueston, who only managed one redfish at 3.10 pounds.

All five teams began the final day with their previous weights zeroed. Lessinger and Totten had wire-to-wire victory in their sights, and despite the slow start to the day, once things heated up, they started pulling in redfish at a remarkable rate for Punta Gorda.

"Jeff caught the first fish, a little 19-incher, but it got us started," Lessinger said. "Then he hooks another fish around 6 pounds, followed by a 4-pounder, which left us at around 10 pounds. He followed up this little flurry by boating a 6.5-pounder, putting us over 12 pounds and in good shape."

Even with a decent weight in the livewell, the duo knew that the competition could catch a 13-pound bag, so they had to keep trying to upgrade from the 6-pounder that was in the well.

Each team was allowed to keep two fish that measured between 18 and 27 inches. Lessinger and Totten had one fish that was just inside the slot and the smaller 6-pounder, but they wanted to cull one more time.

"As we were drifting we saw a group of about 30 to 40 fish and they started swimming away," Totten said. "I made a wild cast in front of them and one turned on it. When it did that, the whole school started to turn. The fish was following it, a common occurrence all weekend, so I just stopped the bait and he ate it."

The fish turned out to be just a hair shy of the 27-inch mark, a 7-plus pounder that cemented the victory for the two Florida guides.

The key all week for many competitors was sight fishing with either a Berkley Gulp! Shrimp or a Gulp! Jerk Shad fished on a 1/8-ounce Mission Fishin' weedless jighead. Lessinger and Totten fished near turtle grass in around 16-18 inches of water on a giant flat to boat the majority of their fish.

The second-place team of Crosby and Steckelberg, the only anglers in the competition from the state of Georgia, were the first team to weigh-in on Day Three, creating some drama in the hot seat as team after team failed to knock them off.

"Dude, we were about to die," Crosby said. "Our emotions went from excitement to excruciating as the teams weighed in. Plain and simple, that weigh-in was exciting. That's why we are here, that's why we were sitting in that boat. If only we could have sat there a smidge longer."

Steckelberg echoed his partner's enthusiasm, "If they could make a pill that bottled up that feeling, they would be a millionaire."

The pair fished a similar area and a similar pattern to the top team, focusing on South Pine Island near areas of sand with grass on top. On the first two days of competition, they utilized an Exude Dart rigged on a 1/8- or 3/16-ounce Swarming Hornet saltwater jighead. A switch on the final day to a Johnson spoon proved to be the ticket with more wind and cloud cover.

"The bite today came as you ripped the bait through the grass," Steckelberg said. "They were really popping it."

The next event in the Redfish Cup season takes place in Kemah, Texas, on May 29th-31st. For full coverage, photographs and standings from all the Redfish Cup events, visit RedfishCup.com. Television coverage from the first event in Punta Gorda, Fla., kicks off July 4th at 8:30 a.m. ET on ESPN2.

Final Results from Punta Gorda, Fla.

Place	Team	Day One	Day Two	Total	Final Day
1	Jeff Totten - Ozzie Lessinger	13.20	11.91	25.11	13.64
2	Joe Crosby - Rick Steckelberg	10.34	11.18	21.52	10.00
3	Richard Freund - Ralph Frazier	11.14	12.87	24.01	9.60
4	Kevin Broussard - Cajun Phil Broussard	8.91	12.95	21.86	9.39
5	Ron Hueston - Chris Hueston	11.96	11.93	23.89	3.10
6	Tadd Van Demark - Kevin Shaw	11.00	10.34	21.34
7	Nick Georgeopoulos - Shannon Haskell	9.90	10.67	20.57
8	Greg DeVault - Bill DeVault	10.05	10.46	20.51
9	Paul Jueckstock - Manny Perez	10.06	9.00	19.06
10	Bryan Watts - Greg Watts	9.78	9.17	18.95
11	Alex Suescun - Mike Laramy	11.93	6.84	18.77
12	Travis Holeman - Bryan Holeman	9.11	9.62	18.73
13	Jason Keating - Keith McBride	7.80	10.41	18.21
14	Robert Scherer - Blaine Friermood	9.21	8.72	17.93
15	Mike Friday - Danny Latham	7.72	9.89	17.61
16	Eric Taylor - Eric Holstman	7.82	9.77	17.59
17	Andrew Bostick - John Landry	5.47	11.65	17.12
18	Charlie Thomason - Shane Pescay	10.75	6.32	17.07
19	Erik Rue - Larry Puckett	7.12	9.92	17.04
20	Scott Hughes - Mat Haag	7.99	8.93	16.92
21	Cody Chivas - Kyle Chivas	6.42	10.40	16.82
22	Trey Newton - Al Keller	11.83	4.92	16.75
23	Bill Pittman - Scott O'Brien	7.60	9.11	16.71
24	Ray Van Horn - C.A. Richardson	10.73	5.68	16.41
25	John Ochs - David Crews	9.73	6.18	15.91
26	Paul Chavis - Blaine Peterson	5.34	10.50	15.84
27	Jarrett Lombard - Leland Symonds	3.32	12.49	15.81
28	Chief Tauzin - Clark Jordan	8.70	6.41	15.11
29	Mike Frenette - Michael Frenette	4.20	10.63	14.83
30	Joey Sostheim - Pete Turner	7.26	6.93	14.19
31	Dwayne Eschete - Mark Sepe	12.90	0.00	12.90
32	Heath Seckel - Brian Ulch	0.00	12.70	12.70
33	Ken Chambers - John Merriwether	3.42	9.25	12.67
34	Bill Faulkner - Kevin Mihailoff	5.69	6.58	12.27
35	Jon Loring Jr. - Ray Malone	6.94	5.10	12.04
36	Ryan Sweezy - Randy Weaver	0.00	11.67	11.67
37	Sam Bertha Jr - Gary McKenzie	6.67	4.42	11.09
38	Blair Wiggins - Travis Tanner	0.00	11.04	11.04
39	Chris Cenci - Tommy Derringer	10.89	0.00	10.89
40	Chuck Howard - CJ Howard	4.64	6.14	10.78
41	Bo Johnson - Mike Del Duca	0.00	8.84	8.84
42	Rick Murphy - Geoffrey Page	0.00	8.62	8.62
43	Jeff Pope - Brandon Buckner	6.20	2.30	8.50
44	Chris Wittman - Tom Winrow	7.46	0.00	7.46
45	Tim Young - Jason Catchings	5.47	0.00	5.47
46	Jimmy Lloyd - Terry Thomas	0.00	5.26	5.26
47	Sonny Granger - Jake Matney	4.51	0.00	4.51
48	Jason Hughey - Matt Ingram	0.00	3.06	3.06
49	Roland Martin - Steve Loyd	2.68	0.00	2.68
50	Scott Ritter - Robert 'Bobby' Abruscato	2.62	0.00	2.62
51	Ben Alderman - Ronnie Pitts	0.00	0.00	0.00
51	John Henninger - Warren Girle	0.00	0.00	0.00
51	Jim Prado - Steve Auld	0.00	0.00	0.00
51	Terry Seagraves - Sam Swett	0.00	0.00	0.00
51	David Christian - Charlie Taradoski	0.00	0.00	0.00
51	Kris Walter - Randy Hendrick	0.00	0.00	0.00