CYPREMORT POINT – Patience is a virtue, sure, but two saltwater fishermen were running out of it with water levels ultra-low in inland waters March 16.

Following a 6:30 a.m. start for the first Southcentral Fishing Association tournament of 2024, Caleb Evans and Cody Haas, riding in Evans’ 20-foot Gravois hull, Makeover, wondered if they could get into their fishin’ hole to tempt the right-sized “slot” redfish to bite that Saturday. So they waited. And waited.

“We actually didn’t know if we’d be able to fish where we wanted to. It was low. We tried to hit a couple other spots. Then we decided to take a chance and head into the marsh,” Evans said.

The move paid off for them as they eventually caught about 20 redfish, including the two “slots” that weighed 13.90 pounds, good enough to turn back the rest of the 12-boat field that fished the opener out of Quintana Canal Landing. They needed every ounce to win their first-ever SFA tournament.

Evans, 30, of Rynella, an application specialist for Houston-based Forum Energy Technologies, finally drove into the pond in the broken marsh in the central part of Marsh Island, where the water was 1- to 1 ½-feet deep. The two anglers went to work right away with shrimp under a popping cork and, alas, the redfish didn’t bite.

So they stayed patient one more time because both knew the reds were in there. Evans and Haas, who have fished SFA tournaments together for approximately 10 years, stayed put.

“I’ve learned to trust my gut where I think they’ve got fish instead of running all over,” Evans said.

“We actually didn’t catch a fish until about 10 o’clock. We were nervous.”

The bite was slow at first, he said. They barely moved the popping corks to coax a few redfish to eat and visit the ice chest.

But the action picked up. Soon they popped the shrimp at a faster pace and the redfish responded.

“It was really weird. It was slow. We caught a few fish at first. At the end, the fish were aggressive. We trolled (trolling motored) the whole day, constantly beat the bank, never anchored, never fished the bottom,” Evans said.

Haas, of Loreauville, a 31-year-old quality manager for Keystone Energy Tools in Broussard, caught both redfish they put on the digital scale at the time of reckoning, 3:30 p.m. The first one went into the boat around 11 a.m. while the other one was the second last redfish to bite before the flurry quit around 1:30 p.m.

It was the first-ever SFA win for Evans and Haas, who finished runners-up in the Angler(s) of the Year race in 2023.

Milton Davis and his crew opened the season with a strong second-place finish that came up a fraction of an ounce short. Davis, his son, Dusty Davis, and his grandson, Layn Davis, came back with two “slot” redfish weighing 13.85 pounds for $250. The Lydia team continued its run of strong SFA showings.

SFA director Brooks Amy, his father, Perry Scott, and their fishing buddy, Jacob Fisher, ended 2023 on a high note by winning the SFA Classic and began the new season by cashing in with a third-place finish at 10.6 pounds worth $150.

The biggest redfish of the tournament was carried to the scale by Ryan Savoy.

Evans savored the first win by his two-man team. The two fishing buddies took the early lead for AOY.

“That’s a goal for us. We couldn’t pass them up last year,” he said about defending AOY winners Keo Khamphilavong, Craig Landry and Randy Migues, who opened defense of their title with a fourth-place finish.

“That’s the first one we win. So it felt really good for us,” Evans said.

Still, the W was a pleasant surprise.

“It was a shock to us because we felt for sure we’d need 16-plus pounds for us to win it. It ended up being an all-around great day for us,” he said.