First day reels in bountiful catch of redfish (7/4)

Posted July 3, 2009 at 11:56 pm
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By CLAUDETTE OLIVIER
AMERICAN PRESS

(Also see Claudette Olivier’s Outdoors Blog.)

Massive redfish stole the show on the first day of the Southwest Louisiana Fishing Club’s Fourth of July Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo.

“This good weather and a little breeze, with no big rollers coming in off the Gulf, is what’s letting anglers catch those big reds,” said Mike Harbison, who has been the event’s weighmaster for eight years. “We didn’t have any reds that big weighed in on the first day last year.”

Slphur’s Jay Stark, and his children — Landon, Aaron and Olivia — pulled up to the weighstation and unloaded two ice chests, one with all of his fish, reds and specks, and another with all of theirs, a huge red for each.

“The kids caught their fish using live mullet,” said Stark, who landed the top speckled trout and reds in the flyfishing division and the top redfish in the Inland division, a 30.55-pounder. “I used a Road Runner, a fly with a little lead-head (jig) and feathers.”

Starks’ oldest son Landon beat his dad’s mark with a 31.45-pound red for first in the junior division. Aaron was second at 24.85, while Olivia was third at 22.05. Landon said he fought his red for 10 minutes before hauling it into the boat.

The family crew will head back out to the Jetties and the Old Jetties at the south end of Big Lake today.

“We’ll will fish for whatever hits,” said Stark, who was the first and only person to turn a catch in the flyfishing division on Friday.

The board for the 72nd annual event was so dominated by the large reds that one angler walked up to the board and didn’t even bother to weigh in because all of his fish were less than 17 pounds.

“See y’all tomorrow,” he said. “Somebody out there is doing some good fishing.”

In fact, Landon’s fish was 4.305 pounds off the tournament record, a 35.5-pound monster caught by Ray Price in 1991. Last season, Timmy Dyer won the redfish category in the junior division with a 10.08-pounder and Shawn McRay took the top prize in the Inland division with a 28.82-pound red.

A few other fishers also ran into some bad luck.

“The alternator on our boat went out at 6 a.m.,” said Dyer, who has fished the rodeo for several years. “We had to come all the way back in to fix it.”

Dyer, from Austin, Texas, fishes the tournament with his uncle Gil Romero of Lake Charles.

“This will be his last year to fish the junior division,” Romero said.

Hunter Gothreaux and his dad Doug almost completely missed the tournament because of a broken boat, but after offering to fuel up a friend’s boat, were able to hit the waters.

“I’ve never fished the tournament before, but Doug’s boat broke,” said Raleigh Estilette. “He offered to pay my gas, so I said sure.”

Estilette said he was pleased that he went out — he placed in the event.

“I’m first place in the gafftop for today,” Estilette said.

The Gothreaux-Estillete crew headed out at 4 a.m. and also fished the Old Jetties and the Jetties.

“We used live mullet and were catching something on every cast,” the elder Gothreaux said. “We fished until we ran out of mullet, and that was it. We headed in.”

The younger Gothreaux weighed in a gafftop, a speck and a red in the junior division.

“We plan to head out and fish every day,” Estilette said. “We may go out at night as well, when the wind lays down, and spotlight.”

One of the few crews to return from offshore was Alan May of Lake Fork, Texas, his son Dale of Westlake, and Shonna Smith of Moss Bluff.

The elder May and Smith both weighed in Spanish mackerel — Smith’s at 2.4 pounds and May’s at 4.15 pounds.

“We fished about 26 miles out of Cameron,” the father said. “Shonna was trawling with a red feather jig, and I was using a Russell lure.”

The crew plan to hit the water again today.

Tournament director Louis Vallee, who fishes the tournament every year, didn’t make it out on the waters Friday — he was busy counting tournament tickets.

“We sold 383 tickets, two less than last year, but that’s still a lot,” Vallee said. “That’s really good, and I am very pleased.”

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