• Originally published September 2, 2009 at 10:21 p.m., updated September 2, 2009 at 10:30 p.m.

Don't tell Leslie Littles and Demetric "Pop" Wells there are no similarities between football and fishing.

The Victoria fishing partners find redfish like Littles found receivers and Wells tracked down running backs.

Wells and Littles recently wrapped up Team of the Year honors in the Texas Redfish Series and brought home a new boat in the process.

"Fishing is something I initially did to relax," Littles said. "Once you develop the skill, the competitiveness comes out in you. It's just the love of competition.

"When I played football, there was no comparison," he added. "Now that I'm doing this, it's more exciting than football."

Littles played quarterback at Stroman and Henderson County Junior College (Trinity Valley Community College) before going to work for the City of Victoria.

Littles began fishing with Wells, who is married to his cousin Shay, when he moved to Victoria from East Texas.

Wells grew up in Kilgore and played linebacker at Southwest Texas State (Texas State), coached at Stroman and Memorial and is currently the middle school principal at Edna.

"We share the same passion for fishing," Little said. "Of course, with him being from East Texas he was used to freshwater fishing and I liked saltwater.

"We just grew into it and we really got serious about it. We had a lot of the same fishing habits and we fished in the same water. We've gotten to where we even share a boat. Every year or two, we buy a new boat."

Littles and Wells made good use of their boat when they entered the Texas Redfish Series for the third year.

The series includes tournaments in Port Aransas, Rockport, Freeport, Corpus Christi and Port Lavaca.

Tournaments can include as many as 130 teams, who leave from the same dock around the break of dawn and are allowed to fish wherever they please.

Teams return around 4 p.m. and weigh their two redfish. Points are allotted according to the total weight of the fish.

In order to encourage conservation, the fish are released after the weigh-in and a half-pound is deducted for a dead fish.

The key to Littles' and Wells' success is their ability to locate the redfish.

"It's like preparing for a football game. We scout," Wells said. "We try to spend a minimum of seven days on the water prior to each tournament. We see a pattern of where the fish are going to be. We stick to the plan."

Littles and Wells usually catch between 35 and 40 fish before returning to the dock for the weigh-in.

"It's patience, patience, patience," Wells said. "Sometimes the good ones are there and they're not eating. You do whatever is in your power to get them to eat."

Wells and Littles went into the final tournament in Port Lavaca with a 25-point lead in the standings and needed only to play it safe to capture the title.

But their 14-pound catch was good enough to win the tournament along with the team title.

"It was a pretty distinct honor," Littles said. "You're fishing against some of the best on the Texas coast."

Wells and Littles have made the most of the long hours they spend on the water, and they've found the ideal way to pass the time.

"We talk a lot about football," Wells said.

Mike Forman is a sports writer for the Victoria Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6588 or mforman@vicad.com, or comment on this column at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.

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