Weather Conditions:

Low – 67

High – 88

Mostly Sunny

Wind – North/Northeast 5-10

The 8^th tournament of the year took place at Quachita River/Bayou Louie. This was a trailer tournament members could either fish the river or in Bayou Louie. Two weeks ago no one would have thought that we would be getting a cool front in August, but it was a welcome surprise. The 67 degree start off was an awesome feeling. Recent rains and cooler weather really helped the fishing in both areas. The Quachita River had some current and color and Bayou Louie water temp had dropped. This was our lowest turnout of the year with 21 entries, but as the year is ending this is expected.

With the season winding down and angler of the year and best 6 qualifiers all on the line this makes every decision and point mean that much more. For anglers fishing in Bayou Louie, you had lots of laydowns, brush piles, and trees to fish, but you had to slow down and really pick this structure apart. Anglers fishing the Quachita River had laydowns, sandbars, and run outs which was more suited to your power fisherman. Out of the Top 5 finishers, 3 came from the Quachita and 2 from Bayou Louie. While the Quachita produced more fish, the average weight per fish was better from Bayou Louie. When it was all said and done, I was able to pull out the winning weight with 12.72lbs. This sack was anchored by the big fish of the day with a weight of 5.23lbs. I was able to catch all my fish on the bridge pylons in the Black River. All my fish were either caught on some type of crankbait or a jerkbait in a shad color except the big fish which was caught on a football jig. Second place went to Jeremy Sonnier with 12.13lbs. Jeremy was fishing in Bayou Louie. His fish were caught on either a worm or brush hog in the laydowns and brush on the edges of the banks. His big fish (4.94lbs) was caught on the brush hog. Third place went to Russ White with 11.92lbs.  Russ started the morning in Little River catching a solid limit of fish on a spinnerbait. He had a little encounter with a barge and decided to head back up river to the Quachita. With 10 minutes to go, he was able to catch a 5.03lb Quachita River toad on a tube. That fish clinched his AOY title. Rounding out the top 5 were Kevin Woodson (Quatchita River) with 10.3lbs and Wallace Woodson (Bayou Louie) with 8.85lbs.

There were a total of 58 fish caught with an average weight of 1.84lbs and an average fish per angler of 2.7. This was by far our lowest fish count and size of the year, but this is kind of expected in August. One thing that really brought down our average weight was our President Curt Paul’s 0.47lb (7.52 ounces) SLOUNCH DONKEY that he brought to the scales. This is our smallest fish on record that was ever brought to the scales.

With only one tournament remaining the current standings for the top 10 are shown below. These standings include the 2 drop tournaments.

1) Russ White – 593

2) Rick Villemarette – 584

2) Josh Sikes – 584

4) Brandon Nugent – 578

5) Aaron Belgard – 573

6) Wallace Woodson – 572

7) Kevin Woodson – 564

8) Mike Barbat – 550

9) Mark Barbat – 535

10) Michael Watts – 531

 

If my calculations are correct, we have a new AOY. Congrates to Russ White! Somone has finally ended the 4 year run of Rick and Wallace. He had an awesome year with 3 wins and his lowest finish was a 6^th place.

 

I copied this quote from Michael Iaconelli’s last article thought it was a good quote for when things aren’t going your way. “The thing not to do is feel sorry for yourself or blame your equipment. Especially don’t blame other anglers and never, not ever, blame luck. Luck is something you can’t do anything about. If you blame luck, you’re done. If you can’t change things, why even try?”

 

Once again Congrates to Russ for his title! Our last tournament of the year will be in the Red River at Ben Routh. Hope to see everyone there.

 

Brandon Nugent