Brittany Granger, who fishes whenever she gets a chance before school starts, is shown fighting a big redfish inside Marsh Island the day of the Classic.

CYPREMORT POINT — You can take the teacher out of the classroom but you can’t take the classroom out of the teacher.

Brittany Granger of Delcambre held class on the water and taught a valuable lesson July 21 during the Southcentral Fishing Association Classic. The Delcambre Elementary School third-grade teacher showed how to hook, fight and land a quality “slot” redfish while fishing with her fiancé, Blaise Delcambre, and his fishing buddy, Shane “Boy-D” Doucet, in Doucet’s 22-foot Blazer Bay.

That redfish, which bit about 10:30 a.m., was the key to winning the SFA Classic and $1,000. The all-Delcambre crew needed the 8.20-pound redfish, which they weighed along with a 7-pounder for a total of 15.20 pounds, to break a tie for first place with a boat skippered by Milton Davis of Lydia.

It was the first time a tiebreaker had to be used to determine a winner, according to SFA President Gerrit “T-Blu” Landry.

Granger’s catch also won the Calcutta and another $600.

“Brittany didn’t rag me too much but she ragged her fiancé a good bit,” Doucet said a few days later.

“Oh, yeah, she was the better fisherman on the boat that day. I’m glad she was there.”

The 27-year-old Granger agreed that she dished out some good-natured ribbing to Delcambre

“A little bit. But like I told him, he taught me everything I know,” Granger said.

“Every weekend that Blaise can fish, we’re on the water. Blaise wasn’t working and the weather was right (for the Classic). I’m glad they let me tag along,” she said.

Granger and Delcambre , who works at Baker Hughes, fished the first and fourth SFA regular-season tournaments with Doucet, who fished the third one with another fishing buddy, Jarrod Derouen of Rynella, before hooking up again with Granger and Delcambre. Doucet and Derouen finished third in that third tournament, which “definitely helped” qualify for the SFA Classic.

“We got off to a pretty rough start. We didn’t place in the money until the next-to-last one,” Doucet said.

Doucet, 30, who works for an oil field control system company, had a game plan in mind for the SFA Classic. He and Delcambre went over it and it paid off.

With the summer heat bearing down once the sun gets high in the sky, they wanted to target the deep holes inside Marsh Island. The idea, though, was to move around to different deep holes.

“Well, we tried to get to the island as fast as possible” after the 6 a.m. start, he said.

“We figured a majority of the people would go sit on the holes. It was hot and the fish go deeper. But a lot of people stayed in a spot too long,” he said.

“It wasn’t very fast and furious,” he said, noting they caught 10 good slot redfish, just under 27 inches, and released several bull reds. “You couldn’t stay in one spot for too long. I told Blaise that morning we’d keep bouncing around different areas and hopefully find a spot.’ ”

The two slot redfish they weighed in were caught in different areas, one midway through the island and the other closer to the Gulf of Mexico, he said. The redfish were caught on Carolina-rigged mullet, he said.

Granger’s Calcutta-winning redfish had them concerned, she said.

“At first, we thought it’d be too big until we put it on the measuring stick and it was just under 27 inches. We figured it was going to be our clutch fish that we needed and we were right,” the elementary school educator said.

It was an enjoyable, memorable catch start to finish, she said.

“It was pulling pretty hard. I knew it’d be a good one but I didn’t think it’d be that good,” she said.

It was a thrill to top the SFA Classic field that fished out of Quintana Canal Boat Landing, Granger said.

“I’m excited. It was me and Blaise’s first year in SFA tournaments. It was a great ending to our first year,” she said. “Hopefully, Shane will ask us back.”

Doucet was pleased and proud.

“I mean, it’s definitely nice to win a tournament. It’s even better to win the last one. It’s something you work hard for all season,” he said. “It’s very tough competition, for sure, with the anglers you’re fishing with. That’s some of the best fishermen around here, for sure.”

Those “best fishermen” include Davis and his hard-fishing crew that have won SFA Angler(s) of the Year titles and previous SFA Classics. They finished a fraction of an ounce short on the big fish tiebreaker in this SFA Classic.

Davis fished with his son, Dusty Davis, his daughter, Brittany David, and Jonathan Rush.

Thirteen boats fished the SFA Classic.

Following the winners and Davis’ boat, third place went to Keith Delahoussaye of New Iberia and Quinten Comeaux and Ryan Landry, both of Delcambre, with 14.60 pounds.