CYPREMORT POINT — Quentin Comeaux savored the Southcentral Fishing Association’s first action of the year probably more than any other SFA member who fished the “slot” redfish tournament a week ago Saturday.

And it wasn’t just because he and his crew ran away with the win. He was happy to be tournament fishing after SFA’s first two regularly scheduled tournaments were postponed because of restrictions put in place by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’ve still been fishing … just no tournaments. We love competition. We’re always looking to fish a tournament somewhere,” Comeaux said.

The 36-year-old Delcambre outdoorsman thought about it some more and said, wholeheartedly, “Boy, I love fishing these.”

Comeaux, Ryan Landry and his young son, Owen Landry, both of Delcambre, and veteran saltwater fisherman Keith Delahoussaye of New Iberia loved it even more after the first SFA weigh-in of the year under the pavilion along Quintana Canal at Cypremort Point. After one of their three “slot” redfish (16 to 27 inches) “busted” at the scale, the other two made the cut easily and weighed 16.15 pounds as announced by weighmaster Matt Landry.

The crew also boasted the Calcutta-winning redfish, an 8.20-pounder that added $210 to the $595 they collected for finishing first in the field of 17 boats.

“We were excited, more excited to win. Last year we came out second a bunch of times. We didn’t win any of them last year,” Comeaux said.

Their closest challenger’s catch was nearly 3 pounds behind the winning weight. Gerrit “T-Blu” Landry, SFA president, and his veteran crew of Tooky Lasseigne and Brady Derise’s two redfish weighed 13.35 pounds for $340.

Matt Landry and Bryant Landry finished third with two redfish weighing 12.75 pounds worth $170.

Ryan Savoy was fourth with 12.55 pounds for $135.

Fifth place went to Charles Oubre, Matt Hebert and Mark Patout, whose two reds weighed 10.25 pounds for $120.

Comeaux, a production operator for Hilcorp Energy Co., said the winning boat, his 24-foot Haynie with a 300-h.p. Yamaha, traveled approximately two hours to get to its destination — Four League Bay southeast of the mouth of the Atchafalaya River. The crew fished grass beds and broken marsh on their way to catching 15 to 20 redfish.

“Earlier in the week, me and Keith found some big fish. We figured we had a pretty good chance if we could catch the right ones,” Comeaux said about their productive scouting trip the Wednesday before the tournament.

“I love fishing there,” he said.

They caught most of the redfish on shrimp under a popping cork, he said. He doesn’t know who caught the Calcutta-winning redfish.

“As we catch them, we measure them and throw them in the ice chest. We weigh them” when they return to the boat landing, he said.

The biggest redfish they kept was caught by Owen Landry, a 10-year-old student at Dozier Elementary in Erath. However, it was a little too long to be inside the slot limit and was removed from consideration at the weigh-in table.

Nevertheless, Owen was a proud boy after catching that nice red in the morning.

Comeaux said the boy has been fishing with them two or three years.

“He’s been coming with us more now that he’s old enough to make it all day fishing,” he said.

Overall, the crew is a veteran one.

“Yeah, we’ve been having the same crew the last couple years. We fish good together,” he said.

Comeaux and the Landrys will miss the next tournament, a makeup scheduled for June 6, because they will be in Grand Isle.

“Keith will be by himself. We’re going to see what the old man’s got,” Comeaux said with a chuckle.

That 17 boats fished the long-awaited and twice-delayed season opener pleased T-Blu Landry.

“I think we had a pretty good turnout for the weather conditions. Seventeen boats is a good turnout with the tough fishing conditions,” Landry said. “The wind was 20 mph a couple of different times during the day. There were whitecaps in a couple lakes in the island (Marsh Island). It was strong enough to do that.

“And with everything else going on, everybody was ready to get out. The wind discouraged some of them (SFA members). (But) I’m happy with 17. I think we’ll gain more (boats) with every tournament.”

Landry’s boat, Gotta Have Faith, a 23-foot Key West, had one win last year but it was a big one. He guided his crew to victory in the SFA Classic on July 20. Fishing was much more difficult in his next outing a week ago Saturday.

And it took a late flourish to catch the redfish that carried them to a second-place finish with two slot reds weighing 13.35 pounds for $340.

“It was a struggle. We only caught five (red)fish. We caught three in the last 45 minutes before we had to come back in,” the charter boat captain said after fishing with Lasseigne and Derise. “Everybody we talked to had six, seven fish. We have some of the best anglers around who fish with us. You’ve got to have big ones if you’re going to compete because they are going to catch them.”

Matt Landry and Bryant Landry finished third in the opener with two entries weighing 12.75 pounds for $170. Ryan Savoy was fourth with 12.55 pounds worth $135. Charles Oubre, Matt Hebert and Mark Patout were fifth with 10.25 pounds for $120.

T-Blu Landry said SFA officials recently decided to reschedule the two tournaments that were postponed by COVID-19 restrictions for June 6 and July 18. The June 20 tournament will remain on the schedule to give members the standard four tournaments, of which one can be dropped.

The SFA Classic, usually held in July, will be pushed back to an as-yet undetermined date in August.