Chad Dufrene, of Purvis, Mississippi, and Barnie White, of Brewton, Alabama, weighed a two-redfish limit that totaled 17.65 pounds to win the final regular-season event for the Louisiana Division of the IFA Redfish Tour presented by Cabela’s on Aug. 1 at Houma, Louisiana. The team won a total of $28,679 in winnings.
Dufrene and White are both longtime IFA Redfish Tour anglers and have partnered together for the last three years. After persevering a week of bad pre-fishing, the anglers’ luck took a turn for the better.
“We had a horrendous week of practice,” said Dufrene. “Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. It wasn’t going good in practice until Friday at one o’clock. We found a good group of fish in a unique place, on the edge of a huge lake in a grass bed. They were susceptible to the wind because they were far off the bank. If the wind stayed down, we knew we had a shot.”
The anglers headed back to the lake first thing on the day of the competition. Dufrene credits his gear as being instrumental to their success.
“The Power-Pole was a big key to our success,” said Dufrene. “We were able to power pole down and sit there as the fish came off the grass bed to feed on menhaden. As they would come up, we were able to pick off some of the bigger fish.”
The anglers caught about 15 to 18 fish in the lake with pearl-colored jerk shads, which imitated the menhaden. With a good limit by 8:30, the wind began to pick up affecting water clarity. The team moved closer to the marina to target bull reds in ponds.
“We caught about six or seven more fish, but they were mostly oversized,” said Dufrene. “I thought we had enough to maybe finish in the top three. When you have 80 plus teams, it usually takes around 18 pounds to win. There are a lot of good anglers on this tournament trail because you get the best of the best.”
Second-place finishers Chris Logan, of Cat Spring, Texas, and Emil Reznicek, of Sealy, Texas, weighed 16.62 pounds of redfish during the event. The team stayed close to the take off and sight-fished with Berkley Gulp! in the Dulac area. The anglers won a total of $4,514 for their fish.
Chris Kennedy, of Metairie, Louisiana, and Chris Cenci, of Jacksonville, Florida, took third place with their 16.48 pounds of redfish, netting the team $3,170 in winnings. The veteran IFA anglers sight-fished in the DuLarge area with good weather conditions.
Next Stop: Port Aransas, Texas
The next stop for the IFA Redfish Tour is at Port Aransas, Texas, on August 15th. The event will operate out of Port Aransas Marina (301 JC Barr Blvd., Port Aransas, TX 78373) and will begin its activities on Friday, Aug. 14, with tournament registration from 5-7 p.m. at the marina. The captain’s meeting will be held nearby at the Port Aransas Civic Center (710 W. Ave. A, Port Aransas, TX 78373). Anglers will launch from Port Aransas Marina at safe light on Saturday, Aug. 15, with check-in times assigned at Friday’s captain’s meeting.
In addition to nearly 200% payback and multiple contingency opportunities, the upcoming Lafitte event guarantees a new, fully-rigged Ranger boat powered by a Yamaha outboard valued at $25,995 for first place.
By: Palmer Conrad, Palmer Conrad Consulting
