Capt. Thomas Barlow and teammate Glenn Vann were pretty confident they’d have their area to themselves. The Texans went far back Corpus Christi Bay up into the Nueces Delta Preserve.
“This week end we’re going in 8 inches of water — shallow as we can,” Barlow said. “We found groups of fish that no one else in this tournament has looked at. I’ve got the shallowest boat in this tournament.”
With their 25-foot Haynie Magnum that Vann designed, the pair led on RedTrakk much of Day 1. They had two redfish estimated at 15 pounds, 4 ounces to stand about a quarter of a pound ahead of Bassmaster Elite Series pro and teammate Capt. Ryan Rickard.
The deal with the Haynie is that Vann’s design, with a console and fuel tank more centered to offset the weight of the 350 hp Suzuki, they can get into super skinny water.
“We pulled everything out of the boat to make it as light as possible,” Vann said, noting they took out about 200 to 300 pounds of extra weight to make up for the addition of a cameraman.