PORT ARANSAS, Texas — Three-eighths of an inch kept defending champions Ryan Rickard and Chris Zaldain from leading after Day 1 of the 2022 Yamaha Bassmaster Redfish Cup presented by Skeeter. After multiple looks on their measuring board, they released the 9 ½-pound redfish that was just over the 28-inch maximum in this event where the slot limit is 20 to 28 inches.
“That’s the only over we’ve caught since we’ve been fishing together,” Zaldain said. “Ryan is really good at finding those 27- to 28-inch fish. In practice, he caught two over 9 pounds (that were under 28 inches).”
And Rickard, who is from Wimauma, Fla., caught one during the tournament Friday, a 27 and 7/8ths-inches-long redfish that weighed 9 ¼ pounds, about 50 yards from where Zaldain landed the 9 ½-pounder that was over the slot.
If Rickard and Zaldain are going to repeat as Redfish Cup champions, they’re going to have to keep that pace. After the first day of this three-day event, they trail leaders Eddie Adams of Metairie, La., and Sean O’Connell of Mandeville, La., by 13 ounces.
Rickard and Zaldain have gushed all week about the chemistry they’ve developed after fishing together for less than two weeks – six days last year and three practice days and a tournament day this year.
“We kind of fill each other’s gaps,” Zaldain said. “The chemistry is there.”
The gap is two inches when it comes to swimbait preference. Zaldain opened Rickard’s eyes a year ago by catching redfish on a six-inch swimbait. Rickard prefers a four-inch profile. The big “over” redfish Zaldain caught Friday came on a six-inch Bass Mafia Unloaded Daingerous model.
“They call it unloaded because it has no weight and no hook,” Zaldain said. “It’s basically a blank swimbait. I’m using a belly-weighted 7/0 hook on a quarter-ounce head. It’s pearl white. In the bass world, it looks like a big gizzard shad. Here, it looks like a mullet.”
Rickard prefers a four-inch Strike First paddletail swimbait, saying, “That’s my confidence bait. I know I’m going to get bit on that.”
While Rickard and Zaldain are ahead of the pace from a year ago, when they had 14-10 on Day 1, Rickard thinks the winning weight this week will still be around that 43-4 total they won with last year because of the 180-degree wind shift that’s coming overnight, from south to north.
“I think (Saturday) you’re going to see a huge difference in these weights,” Rickard said. “When the wind switches from one direction to a complete opposite and the (barometric) pressure changes, these fish will move. It’s going to be a little more challenging.”
