When Victoria Texas pro Mark Robinson backed his new Tidewater Boats 25′ Raptor down for the first day of official practice in the Elite Redfish Series Professional Redfish Tour, he had a feeling he was on the right fish, but just how right those fish would be would take a lot of practice and 2 days of intense competition to determine.
Mark dominated a field of top anglers and did so using just 5 of his allotted 6 fish limit (for 36.70 pounds) when he had the 6th fish “kicked” for being over the 28” maximum size limit on day 2. The first glimpse of how good of a weekend this could turn out to be came on the final day of official practice when Robinson took part in the Elite Community Pro-Am. Winning that event and guiding his partner councilwoman Evans to her first win as the armature, now Robinson had an idea. “I thought I was on the right fish, but the way I had to fish for them was a gamble.” Robison told host Pat Malone on stage that he would practically beach his 25’ Tidewater Cat and wait for the fish to come out of the shallows. “I had to be super quiet and efficient, the entire bite time was about 15 minutes each day and you had to be there when they moved out.”
Six Elite pros eased into their weekend with a fun, community centered Pro-Am. Just 1 fish for the pro and 1 for the Am during a half day event where their armature had to fish for and catch their own fish as well; no shared weights, no team totals, a true Pro-Am. After this final 1/2 day fishing period the pros hit the Elite stage in the Kemah Lighthouse District for an exciting and fun weigh in. Immediately following the weigh in they were treated to food, cold AC and drinks at the VooDoo hut to finish off the afternoon.
Whatever Mark found it was the right fish and in this very limited field they were still rewarding as he left with over $10,000.00 in cash plus prizes, trophies, etc. and another $1,000.00 in bonus cash for winning the Pro-Am!
In 2nd place local angler Blake Trevino weighed in 29.29 for the 2 days of fishing and took home $3,000.00 while current points leader Gary Moreno finished in 3rd with 27.46 pounds. Tony Viator and Will Granberry rounded out the top 5, Tony Viator weighed in 22.36 to finish in 4th while Will had a tough day 2 and finished with 12.17.
It was a great week of events in the great and fun city of Kemah Texas and we are already planning 2023 to make the Community Pro-Am bigger the tour returns with its original 3 day format of professional competitions. Stay tuned!
See the full story, images and live weigh ins at eliteredfishseries.com.
