Tournament winners Ozzie Lessinger and Jeff Totten hang their trophies high at the 2009 Redfish Cup in Punta Gorda. Photo by Redfish Cup / Tim Ables.

Local anglers Jeff Totten and Ozzie Lessinger never relinquished their lead in three days of fishing at the first stop of the 2009 Redfish Cup in Punta Gorda (May1 – May 3). In what's widely considered a tough stop on redfish tours, Totten and Lessinger brought to the weigh-in two-fish bags topping 13 pounds, two out of the three days.

"The team that won deserved it," said Joe Crosby, part of team that placed second and the only team from Georgia. "They thumped us every day. Congratulations to Jeff and Ozzie--it wasn't even close at the end." Joe Crosby and Rick Steckelberg finished in second, a full 3.64 pounds back.

Crosby and Steckelberg are first-year players on the Redfish Cup. The two Georgians had no trouble fitting in and marking a spot on the leader board.

The Georgia boys mostly threw 3/16- to 1/8-ounce Sworming Hornet saltwater jigheads tipped with Exude Darts in clear or gold flake. When the wind blew too hard, they switched to a Mann's ½-ounce gold spoons. At other times, when the wind was slick calm, they threw mullet-color Rapala Skitter Walks. On the second morning of fishing, Rick Steckelberg connected to a solid fish after a huge blowup on his topwater plug. The fish turned out to be a 7-pound redfish (the biggest of the tournament) and helped propel the team into the final day.

"We fished sand bars, oyster bars, and sand holes in the grass flats of the south section of Pine Island Sound," said Crosby. "You had to really slow down and drift across a stretch more than once. Sometimes we would not get a bite on the first drift, but the second or third drift would produce a nice fish."

Crosby and Steckelberg pinpointed the exact potholes they wanted to fish by marking the spots on GPS during pre-fishing. They were fishing in waters less than two feet deep. "We had our sand-hole areas marked on our Lowrance machine, so that we could go right to them. This saved us a ton of time. As we motored toward specific fishing waters in the mornings, the waters were very shallow. We had trails marked on our unit so that we could follow the deeper sections across the flat and not get stuck."

Only the top-five teams from the first two days competed in the final day. All participants started at zero pounds. Crosby and Steckelberg were first to the weigh-in with 10 pounds even. "It was excruciating, exciting and electric," said Crosby. "As team after team came up short, the tension got heavier and heavier." They were the last ones standing until Jeff Totten and Ozzie Lessinger weighed a hefty bag of 13.64 pounds.

The first team left out of the final day was Tadd VanDemark and Kevin Shaw (6th place). Florida Sportsman contributors Alex Suescun (11th place) and Bill Faulkner (34th place) brought fish to the weigh-in each day. Six of the 56 teams did not weigh a fish either day; 14 teams only weighed fish one or none of the two days.