Viator Wins the 2024 World Championship
When the 5 round winners from earlier in the season found out where they were fishing each of them had that grin. The EFL World Championships would be decided in some of the best redfish waters in the world, Lafitte Louisiana in southern Jefferson Parish.
In this unique format anglers have to win a qualifying or elimination round just to make it to the World Championships, so each of these 5 already proved throughout the season that they were winners.
The field can catch, weigh, film and immediately release as many redfish as they can during 2 four hour fishing periods. At the end of period 2 the winner is decided by his best 5 fish of the day. All fish weighing between 3 and 12 pounds are considered scorable fish and since they are immediately released, no measuring of fish is required.
Each angler in each round on the EFL is accompanied by a tour official and tour cameraman. This format makes for some close finishes like Jeremy Reeves and Tony Viator battling it out in qualifying round 3 with Tony advancing by just 10/100th of a pound. Max Martin got things started by winning the opening round with a bit larger lead but no lead is safe as qualifying round number 2 was won by Mark Robinson after Gary Moreno led most of the day.
The anglers who did not win a qualifying round in Stage 1 would have to return for w elimination rounds and have 1 more shot at making it to World Championship Saturday. Doing just that was Gary Moreno edged out fellow pro Will Granberry 31.25 to 28.91 while Chris Shindledecker made the most of his elimination round beating out Alabama’s Barnie White with 38.90 to White’s 36.80.
