An international field of 49 anglers took to the water at Leeville, Louisiana for the first time at the Hobie Fishing Worlds 6 presented by Rhino-Rack® for Lowrance Navigation and Pre-Fish Day.
Lead by local guides, groups of five anglers scattered across the tournament zone, on the hunt for the fish that will make one of them a world champion in just a few days.
It didn’t take long for the rich waters to show off their treasures. Danield Van der Post of the Netherlands landed a couple reds over the 30-inch mark. “I have an idea of what to do. I just need to follow it up when we are scoring them,” he said.
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For Team USA’s Brendan Bayard, the day was an opportunity to scout water conditions. “We still ended up catching some nice slot reds and saw some places where trout were biting even though we never really stopped to fish. We were just getting some exercise today,” he added.
Many anglers notched first fish, including Canadian angler Tim Percy who’d never previously caught a redfish or speckled trout. “It can only get better from here. Hopefully I’ll take what I learned top and work a little harder tomorrow and see how we go from there,” he said.
Few anglers were more excited than Brazil’s Milton Hoffman. “The day was outstanding! This is a very different environment to what we have in Brazil so there is a steep learning curve but I still managed to land a couple of good redfish. I had a great time. I’m just happy and honored to be a part of an event of this caliber in the USA,” he said.
Defending Hobie Fishing World Champion Xiahong Ma of China caught some speckled trout up to 18 inches in length. He said he is still figuring out the fishing. “I need to adjust my style. I have another day to work it out before the real competition starts on Thursday,” he added.
On Wednesday, the anglers will have another opportunity to dial in their plans before the competition gets underway on Thursday.
Hobie Fishing Worlds 6 is proudly supported by Rhino-Rack, Lowrance, Power-Pole, Yak-Attack, Daiwa, Ram Mounts, Lurefans, Hobie Polarized and AFTCO. Follow the action at HobieFishingWorlds.com and the Hobie Fishing Facebook page. Click through for competitor bios and daily updates.
