Locals fare well in redfish tournament

Oh Là Là coming to Nicholls

August 9, 2017

Civil War tour of Bayou Lafourche offered

August 9, 2017

Two teams of local anglers placed eighth and fourteenth in a redfish tournament hosted at the Falgout Canal Marina Saturday, placing them on the books of one of the most respected pro tours in the nation.

The Inshore Fishing Association’s heavily sponsored Redfish Tour paid out more than $30,000 in prizes with top honors going to the team of Justin Collison of Slidell and Danny Sheldon of Newberry, Florida. They weighed a two-fish limit that totaled 18.23 pounds at the second event for the Louisiana Division of the IFA Redfish Tour presented by Cabela’s. They won a fully rigged RB190 Ranger boat prize package powered by a 90 horsepower, four-stroke Mercury outboard, valued at $26,800.

Paul Dufrene of Cut Off, partnered with Nicky Savoie of Lockport, took eighth place in the contest. Ben Adams of Houma, partnered with Times publisher Brian Rushing, took 14th place.

Although Collison and Sheldon have fished the IFA Redfish Tour for eight years, this marks their first full season competing together as a team. It didn’t take long for the duo to rack up a few top-10 finishes to go with their first win at Houma.

“We have fished against each other and found we both like to fish the same way,” said Sheldon. “We both have basically grown up exclusively sight-fishing and poling. We actually met at an IFA event in Titusville. That’s how we got started.”

The days of practice leading up to the event were plagued by storm after storm, making for a tough time finding quality fish. With better weather forecasted for tournament day, the anglers woke to clear skies. The good weather didn’t last long, with a strong storm blowing in, delaying the takeoff.

“About a half hour before takeoff, a big thunderstorm rolled in,” said Sheldon. “We ended up dealing with some lightning and rain early but the sun did come out.”

The anglers made the most of their time with the good weather and put two good fish in the boat with Berkley Gulp! four-inch shrimp, one on natural color and the other with new penny color.

“The sun coming out was a huge part of our success,” said Sheldon. “We had a nice window at mid-morning with very calm winds – just really good conditions with the sun and water clarity. We took advantage of that window of time when conditions were really good.”

The team’s 9.72-pound redfish was the largest of the event and won the $500 Berkley Gulp! Big Redfish award. By catching the lunker on Berkley Gulp!, the anglers added a $250 credit for Berkley products. The anglers also took advantage of the Anglers Advantage contingency program and won an additional $2,848.

Second-place finishers Bobby Weir and Matt Schoen, both of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, weighed a total of 17.65 pounds to win a total of $5,420. The anglers ran approximately 20 miles, sight-fishing Berkley Gulp! and other soft plastics.

Jacob Leininger and Jeff Rogers, both of Slidell, Louisiana, made another strong showing at an IFA Redfish Tour event in Louisiana with their third-place finish. The local anglers won the most recent regular-season event in Hopedale back in April. At Houma, the anglers weighed 17.11 pounds to take home $2,500, along with $1,258 in Anglers Advantage cash.