BILOXI, Miss. (October 16, 2008) - Twenty teams competed in this year’s Oh Boy! Oberto Redfish Cup Championship, and Lucky Craft pro Paul Jueckstock and partner, Manny Perez, brought home the trophy and $50,000 prize.

It was a hard-fought week for the duo. Waves were high, as were the competitive natures of all 20 teams competing for victory in the 2008 Championship. Jueckstock and Perez had a successful practice, and the first day of pre-fishing was the best Perez had ever seen.

“We found a ton of fish and a bunch of schools,” Jueckstock said, as he explained the excitement of the first practice day. “We found a school of Redfish that were multiple sizes, anywhere from 6 pounds to 50 pounds. In that same school were 30- to 50-pound Jacks and Bull Sharks. It was a feeding frenzy every time this particular school showed up. It was really something you would see in National Geographic.”

On that successful practice day, Jueckstock and Perez were fishing the outer islands of Biloxi, Miss. The weather was scheduled to disintegrate toward the last few days of practice, so the duo decided to head to Louisiana before it got too rough.

“We wanted to check it out, and we stayed there for two days but didn’t do really well,” Jueckstock said. “The water was dirty and it was really windy, blowing about 20 to 30 mph each day. It was very tough fishing there, so we decided to go back and fish closer to Biloxi and try the Pascagoula and Bay Christian areas. We found some decent fish in the areas closer to Biloxi and maybe had 12- to 13-pound fish. It turned out great because we knew, if we had to stay inland because of weather, we could still find decent weight.”

However, the weather held off on Friday and Saturday so Jueckstock and Perez headed to the outer islands for the first two days of the tournament. Seas were nearly 2 feet high on the way out and increased on the way back, but they were able to catch big weights both days.

“We were fishing islands, flats and drop-offs,” Jueckstock explained. “The schools would come up chasing bait from the deep water onto the flats, which were about 2- to 4-feet deep. They would chase the bait up there and blast them for about 15 to 20 minutes, then disappear again. It just kept happening like that all day.”

The Lucky Craft team was able to bring in 17.64 pounds on day one and a 15.66-pound bag on day two using soft plastics and the Lucky Craft Sammy 128 in Sunfish and Pearl White.

While searching for the schools, Jueckstock would throw the Sammy 128 and walk it back to the boat to draw the fish up. According to Jueckstock, once the schools were around, they would hit the bait as soon as it hit the water.

“With the Sammy 128, we changed out the hooks and the o-rings,” Jueckstock added. “We were fishing it on 30-pound fluorocarbon on 7 1/2-foot rods.”

After making the top five and moving on to fish the third and final day, Jueckstock and Perez watched as the weather forecast finally proved correct. As the waves got higher and the wind blew harder, the duo wasn’t sure they’d be able to hit their key spots on the outer islands.

“Day three was horrible,” Jueckstock said. “It was blowing 20 to 30 mph so we decided we’d have to stay close and fish some of the back-up areas we found in practice. However, it didn’t look good because nothing looked the same as it did during practice. The water was high and dirty. We fished around for a few hours and had nothing, so we thought we’d try to make a run to the outer islands.”

As soon as Jueckstock and Perez made it past the inner islands, they tried their best to combat the waves awaiting them but couldn’t make it past the 5- and 6-foot seas.

“We had to stay inland and fish the same types of areas on the inner islands as we had on the outer islands the past two days,” Jueckstock said. “We fished flats and drop-offs again, hoping to find the same types of fish we found Friday and Saturday.”

It worked out for Jueckstock and Perez as they weighed in their largest bag all week – 18.90 pounds – and took first place in the Championship tournament.

“It’s a great feeling,” Jueckstock said. “We couldn’t ask for anything more really. It’s the biggest tournament either one of us has ever won. We’re really jelling well together and have a great team. I’m very proud of what we have accomplished this year.”