| Texas Team Wins Redfish Tournament
Kelly Baggett, of Corpus Christi, Texas, and Aron Baggett, of Portland, Texas, weighed in a two-redfish limit that totaled 17.18 pounds to win the IFA Redfish Tour event in Port Aransas, Texas, on April 2.
To win the event, which operated out of City Marina, the Baggetts bested a large field of two-angler teams to take home a 60-horsepower, four-stroke Yamaha outboard and equipped with a Power-Pole shallow water anchor, Minn Kota trolling motor, Humminbird electronics, Blue Point Fabrication metal work, Bob’s four-inch Ultra Light Jackplate, an OPTIMA battery and a Loadmaster trailer valued at $30,000.
In its fourth year competing in IFA Redfish Tour events, the Baggetts ran 20 miles from the tournament launch site to focus on scattered fish in the Upper Laguna Madre area. Experiencing ideal weather during the day, the team utilized silver spoons to target redfish in shallow flats.
“We had just beautiful weather: light winds in the morning; moderate in the afternoon,” Kelly Baggett said. “The conditions allowed us to perform really effective drifts.”
Second-place finishers, Todd Adams and Albert Mills, both of Rockport, Texas, brought 16.83 pounds to the scales during the Port Aransas event, sight fishing in shallow grass flats. Relying on Berkley Gulp! baits and spoons, boated a pair of redfish that weighed in excess of eight pounds each, including an 8.55-pound kicker.
“The conditions were a little windy at times but it didn’t impact our fishing,” Adams said. “We were able to be successful sight fishing and came away feeling very happy about what we were able to accomplish on the water today.”
The third-place team of Kevin Akin, of Corpus Christi, and Brian Talley, of Houston, weighed in 16.52 pounds during the competition, following a day in which the team ran 30 miles to the Laguna Madre area. Focusing on schools of redfish, the team relied on Berkley Gulp! baits to secure their catch.
The team of John White and Tom White, 22nd-place finishers at Port Aransas, won the Berkley Gulp! Big Fish Award with their 9.77-pound redfish, winning $500 and a $500 Cabela’s gift card from Berkley. Eighth-place finishers, John Bremser and Chris Burns, won the $1,000 Cabela’s Angler Cash Award, finishing the event with 15.55 pounds.
The IFA Redfish Tour continues to draw redfish anglers from Texas to the Carolinas and beyond, offering two-angler teams the opportunity to compete in six different divisions, each offering a three-event regular season. Low entry fees for the one-day, regular-season tournaments allows anglers to fish close to home and minimize expenses, while still being a part of a premier inshore, catch-and-release redfish tournament organization. Teams fishing any three of the IFA’s 18 regular-season events are automatically qualified for a no-entry-fee championship event, pitting qualifiers from each of the six divisions for a combined $78,200 in payouts and prize packages, as well as a shot at the coveted Cabela’s Overall Divisional Team of the Year Award for the six regular-season division winners.
In addition to a possible $60,000 in payouts per event (based on a 100-boat field), the first-place prize package for all 18 IFA Redfish Tour regular-season events remains extremely lucrative. In 2011, every regular-season tournament winner is guaranteed – regardless of field size – a fully loaded 2011 Ranger Banshee Extreme. The boat is powered by a 60-horsepower, four-stroke Yamaha outboard and is equipped with a Power-Pole shallow water anchor, Minn Kota trolling motor, Humminbird electronics, Blue Point Fabrication metal work, Bob’s four-inch Ultra Light Jackplate, an OPTIMA battery and a Loadmaster trailer. The entire first-place prize package is valued at $30,000. Lucrative contingency programs added for 2011 include $50 prize to the team claiming the big fish award in an IFA Redfish Tour event if the fish is landed with an EGO Net, $25 prize for both the big redfish and big trout in IFA Kayak Tour events; $250 prize to a qualifying winning team which competes from a boat equipped with OPTIMA Batteries; PENN reels for tournament-winning anglers who compete with PENN reels.
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