CYPREMORT POINT — When two bull reds bit minutes apart the last week of July, first- and third-place in the Cypremort Invitational Fishing Association tournament were decided, as time would prove in the ongoing contest.

Kevin Horton of Avery Island was fishing for redfish July 26 with his nephew, Ian Broussard, after a morning of speckled trout fishing in Vermilion Bay. It wasn’t very long after lunchtime they were anchored off Boxcar Reef, fishing with freshly caught croakers on Carolina rigs trying to get some of those bull reds that roam the reef to bite.

Flurry of bull red bites

They caught four redfish before an extra heavy one bit on Horton’s croaker. The fight was on until it was netted by the 17-year-old Broussard.

“He netted my fish and put it on the floor. That’s when (another) rod bent. My fish was still on the floor when his rod bent,” Horton said the day after the CIFA tournament, which started July 4, ended Wednesday. The winning redfish is worth $500.

They boated the younger angler’s bull red and, as his uncle said, “took it to the house.” They weighed both bull reds and Horton’s registered 35.20 pounds while Broussard’s tipped the scale to 32.14 pounds.

Horton’s entry shot to the Redfish Division leaderboard at Dago’s Mobile & Grocery in Lydia, where it stayed until the scale closed Sept. 30. It wasn’t his first CIFA Redfish Division win but it was a pleasant surprise, he said Thursday.

“I figured it’d stay (on the leaderboard in the Top 5). Generally, something about 38 wins,” Horton said. “(But) it always feels good to win.”

The 44-year-old facility manager at The McIlhenny Co.’s Tabasco plant on Avery Island was more excited about the third-place finish by the bull red reeled in by Broussard.

“He’s a really good kid,” he said about the Catholic High School senior. “His dad’s a (sugar) cane farmer, so when he’s not at school or fishing or hunting he’s working.

“Oh, yeah, he’s a pretty good little fisherman, pretty good with the net. Oh, yeah, you need that,” he said with a chuckle.

Pacing the Redfish Division

Following Horton in the Top 5 were Shane Johnson with a 32.58; Broussard with his 32.14; Noah St. Germain with a 31.72, and his brother, Luke St. Germain, with a 27.92.

Luke St. Germain cashed in for the second straight year in the CIFA tournament. He won the Redfish Division last year with a 32.83-pound bull red he put in the boat Aug. 30 while fishing at Boxcar Reef.

Horton and his nephew didn’t target redfish until after noon that memorable day.

“We started fishing speckled trout. It was early (in the annual tournament) and they hardly had anything on the board,” he said. “After we each had one about 2 pounds, I said, ‘Let’s go get some bait’ (catch croakers) and we went fish redfish,” he said.

The veteran bull red fisherman has half-a-dozen or so favorite spots along Boxcar Reef. He anchored at one of the deeper areas since it was mid-summer. Their fifth and, especially, sixth catches made their day.

Horton said, “He (Broussard) was very excited, too. This was his first year in the tournament and it was his biggest redfish so far.”

The Speckled Trout Division’s winning fish was caught in mid-September by Bo Amy of New Iberia.

Amy wins again

“It’s nice to win,” Amy said Wednesday night.

He fished around here less than usual during the tournament that began the first week of July.

“I really didn’t fish much this year for trout. I might have fished maybe five times before that fish (3.56-pounder) and maybe a few times after,” he said.

Amy headed out in his 15-foot Express aluminum boat with a 25-h.p. Yamaha after work Sept. 18. The VAM USA thread rep was fishing alone and putting 2-pound class speckled trout in the boat consistently when the winning fish ate a blue moon H&H Cocaho on a ¼-ounce leadhead between 5-5:30- p.m. around a wharf in front of a camp in Vermilion Bay.

The 3.56-pounder, worth $500, went into the landing net on the second try, then into the ice chest. When he weighed the fish at Dago’s Mobil & Grocery in Lydia it passed up the previous leader, a 2.94-pound speckled trout caught and weighed July 27 by Lorrie Ardoin of Lafayette. Ardoin said he caught the second-place fish on a homemade topwater lure while fishing with his buddy, Ossie Blaize.

Other Speckled Trout Division Top 5 fish were a 2.83-pounder by Shane Johnson for third place; a 2.80-pounder by Gerrit “T-Blu” Landry for fourth place, and a 2.74-pounder by Ty Bonin for fifth place.

The Speckled Trout Division’s winning weight wasn’t as heavy as some previous winners. Three-pound class and bigger fish have been at a premium since inshore waters got fishable.

Amy agreed and said, “Yeah, definitely. We didn’t have big trout caught this year in the S.T.A.R. I think 5.01 won first place in the S.T.A.R. Usually, it’s got 6, 7 pounds.”

The winning speckled trout last year was a 3.25-pounder caught in mid-August by Landry.

Amy won CIFA’s Speckled Trout Division four years in a row from 2015-18.

Amy credits Lady Luck

Why has he been so successful?

“Luck, I guess. You never know where big fish are going to be. I figure the more times you go, the more fish you catch, the better chance you have catching a big one,” he said.

Amy, 33, believes a natural disaster was beneficial to fishing success late this summer in and around Vermilion Bay.

“I think the storm helped. I think we caught more fish after the storm than before,” he said, noting water conditions changed for the better post-Hurricane Laura, which made landfall to the west Aug. 27.

“I think these (recent) cold fronts help even more,” he said.

Amy believes speckled trout fishing will be fair to good in October and November, perhaps into December, . More and more limits were being reported this past week.