Dwayne Eschete and Clark Jordan, Winners of the Second Louisiana Saltwater Series of the 2013 Season

The second event of the LASS Redfish Series at Calcasieu Point Landing in Lake Charles continued with a success hosting 42 teams from across the Gulf Coast.   The teams took to the waters of Lake Calcasieu looking for a perfect pair of redfish.  As 2:00 pm rolled around, the first teams made their way to the scale.  This catch and release format challenged anglers to catch a limit of two legal redfish using artificial lures only.

Winners from many of our past tournaments were in attendance as well as many new anglers, making this a true test of skill on what started out with a cold morning almost breaking the record low temperature for this time of year. Warmer afternoon temperatures, clear skies and sunshine brought out family, friends and fans to watch the LASS Redfish weigh in.

Familiar faces to the redfish tournament world, Eschete, from Madisonville, Louisiana and Jordan, from Pearland, Texas, took home the top prize participating in their first LASS trail experience. The pair only caught about 30 redfish, but two of them were the right ones to take home the win with 16.35 pounds.
“I was very impressed with the tournament staff and how it was run”, Clark Jordan said, adding “Today was a great day of fishing for Dwayne and I. We were able to sight cast all of our fish in some marsh just a few miles from the launch.”

Nick Ward and Joe Causer took home a rod and reel package sponsored by Shimano for winning one of the extra fish raffle prizes.  Teams are allowed to bring in extra fish in addition to their weigh-in fish to be entered into drawings for special prizes, with the number of entries determined by the number of extra fish brought in to be tagged.

The top finishing teams, taking home over $7,460 in cash prizes, include: 2nd place, Josh Romig and John Saucier; 3rd place, Chris Gaspard and William Benoit; 4th place, Nick Ward and Joe Causer; 5th place, Skip Floyd and Brian Frederick; 6th place, Trey Pearson and Reagan Baker; 7th place, Jack and Vito Neal; 8th place, Jeremy Waltrip and Josh Johnson; and for the team with ‘smallest fish’, Michael McElveen and Rob Folsom.  The awards ceremony was rounded out with recognition of all youth anglers and Preston Pescay took home first place youth by weighing in a beautiful 3.15 pound redfish.

A total of 87 redfish and a lagniappe speckled trout were brought in, tagged and released as part of the Louisiana Marine Sport Fish Tagging Program, where anglers become citizen scientists for the agency, collecting invaluable data.

Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries – Enforcement Division(LDWF) is the fish & game regulatory agency of Louisiana. It has jurisdictionanywhere in the state, and in state territorial waters. The agency enforces both state and federal laws dealing with hunting, fishing, and boating safety. The agency also enforces criminal laws in rural areas including DWI enforcement both on highways and waterways. Most of the Department’s Wildlife Agents also carry Federal law enforcement commissions issued from the United States Department of the Interior - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and United States Department of Commerce - U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). These federal commissions allow these state officers to enforce federal migratory waterfowl laws and federal marine fisheries laws in state and federal waters off the coast of Louisiana. Besides their traditional role as a “game warden”, Louisiana Wildlife Enforcement Agents also have a number of other responsibilities, including conducting board of health inspections on some portions of the state’s commercial fishing industry. Agents are trained in and conduct numerous search and rescue operations, both in remote land areas and on the state’s waterways. Agents ensure that hunters, anglers, boaters, dealers, breeders, farmers, and transporters are in compliance with regulations governing equipment, quotas, licenses, and registrations. Agents also assist other State departments and law enforcement agencies in the coordination of educational and professional endeavors, as well as national and state emergency alerts by the Federal Office of Emergency Preparedness. In addition, agents perform search and rescue missions alone or in conjunction with other local, state, and federal agencies.