Watch Boaters Weigh in Day 1 Live – Watch Championship Saturday Weigh in Day 2 Live – The FISHING WIRE Press Release (coming)
Viator notches first win on
the Elite Redfish Series
Winnie Texas pro Tony Viator led by .08 of a pound after day 1 over points leader and Baytown Texas pro Gary Moreno who weighed in 20.40 and had the Brecknell Scales Big Red of the tournament heading into day 2, a 9.37 pounder. Viator battled small fish and oversized fish and was worried that the right fish would not show up.
In Texas a redfish must be at least 20″ but not over 28″ in length in order to be possessed by an angler and brought to the stage to be weighed. Day 1 Tony boated 3 fish for a total weight of 20.48 pounds but he’d need bigger kicker fish than his day one 7.76 pounder if he wanted to top this field of professional anglers.“I didn’t lose a lot of fish I just didn’t get the good, big bite.” Viator stated at the conclusion of day 1’s weigh in.
Day 2 launched under calm winds and clear skies but both would change before this event was finished. Angler after angler did on the water updates in the afternoon wearing their frogg toggs rain gear, in the midst of big storms moving in to the Port Arthur area in the afternoon of day 2 forcing a delay to the start of Championship Saturday’s weigh in. As the weigh in finally began and pros hit the Elite stage to weigh in their day 2 catch it was obvious something had changed. Good limits and receptive fish on day 1 turned into a struggle for the pros who now looked to just catch and weigh 3 fish! Gary Moreno’s day 1 weight of 20.40 dropping to a 3 fish, 11.73 pound weight for day 2.
At the end of the day Mark Robinson made a big move weighing in 19.20 and nearly catching the eventual winner, Viator. “It was a good day, I went from thinking maybe I can still make a good show to man 1 more good fish and I can win this thing.” Robinson told the great audience gathered at the SALT club on Pleasure Island for the weigh in and those watching the weigh in live online. Viator hit the stage on day 2 with the kicker fish he had been searching for the entire event. A 9.65 pounder would overtake Moreno’s 9.37 pounder and seal the deal for Viators $10,000.00 win and title of Elite Redfish Series Solo Champion.
All in all it was another great event hosted by Visit Port Arthur that found Stingaree pro, Tony Viator making a clean getaway with $10,000.00 including the Brecknell Big Red Challenge check which he won with his 9.65 pounder. Second place was by Victoria Texas pro Mark Robinson who we thought were on the winning fish early on but never caught the big kicker redfish he was finding in practice. Mark took home a check for $2,500.00 and 411 points. 3rd place went to Gary Moreno while finishing in fourth was Will Granberry who continues to get better with each event and finishing with another top 5 finish Bay St. Louis Mississippi pro Bo Favre who got stranded on a mudflat all day Friday and did not weigh a fish came back to weigh in 11.11 on day 2 and get 403 valuable Angler of the Year points. Great job Bo!
We look forward to doing it all again when the Solo Tour moves to Kemah Texas for the final regular season stop of 2022 and the anglers final chance to make the Elite Solo Tour Championship.
Paddle or Peddle let’s have some fun.
For the first time for the Elite Redfish Series we invited and were surprised by the great turnout as 30 Kayak Pros hit the water in their own division on Saturday in the Elite Kayak Tour event. These 30 anglers teamed up to make 15 teams and came to the stage just after the Solo Tour pros finished weighing in. Championship Saturday was great as these guys and gal put on a show of their own. One kayak angler, Jay Martin summed it up perfectly in a post tournament post…
The dynamic between boat and kayak anglers has been interesting over the years. I feel like up until recently, kayak anglers were, for lack of better terms, looked down upon. It was nice seeing the boat anglers clapping and cheering for the kayak anglers as we weighed in. ~Jay Martin
Exactly Jay, well said and to the point, being an Elite angler encompasses a whole lot more than just catching a fish and cutting a check and we are proud of the group of true pros we have competing in our events. No running people over, win at all cost, no burning up shorelines or pushing the lines of sportsmanship with tricks and techniques that are not fair to the entire field or good for the sport. There will be a lot more on the kayakers as we ready for the Kemah Clash coming up August 19-20 at the Kemah Boardwalk but for event 1, this was a total success and we’d like to tip our hats to them and the boaters that were beyond accepting of each other and their equipment and techniques for catching the fish we all love. ~Redfish
See information on the Kemah Solo Tour and Kayak Open here.
Thank you to all of the anglers, spectators, staff, volunteers and of course Visit Port Arthur who made everything possible and perfect for the pros of the Elite Redfish Series once again. A special thanks to the SALT Club of Pleasure Island for your help and support during this great event. Until the next time we get together again, on the water or on the web, stay safe and keep fishing it’s the best sport in the world to get hook’d on…
EVENT RESULTS – EVENT IMAGES – SOLO TOUR POINTS STANDINGS
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