Big specks, bass dominate OCARC tourney

By Chester Moore, Jr

Abundant redfish, big speckled trout and extra large largemouths dominated the weigh-in at the 19th annual OCARC tournament Saturday at the DERA in West Orange.

     The winning trout was Sammy Hall’s 6.05-pounder caught from the Sabine Jetties. Over the last week, the jetties have been solid for specks on live bait and hard plastic mullet imitations. Rounding out the trout category was Dean Blanchard’s 4.92-pounder and a 4.46-pound fish caught by Albert Bates.

     “This tournament brings out some of the best trout fishermen in the area and that division is always hotly contested. The fish weighed in weren’t monsters but they were real nice ones,” said tournament emcee Joe Persohn.

     The trout category is usually the highlight of the tournament as the species is by far the most popular among anglers in our area. The tournament is usually a good gauge of trout fishing to come for the fall fishing season.

     If the tournament is an indicator, the trout fishing should be good in the coming months and so should the redfish action.

“There are a lot of redfish in the system this year and anglers brought in a lot of them,” said tournament director John Thomas.

Tournament rules dictate that anglers cannot bring in any redfish over 27 inches so huge redfish were not expected. However, there were not any real, big fat fish like anglers weighed in at the Saltwater Angler’s League of Texas tournament back in May. A nice 6.75-pounder caught by Tammy Batton took first place.

Last year’s surprise was how many big flounder were weighed in. This year’s, it is the lack of big flounder.

“I was surprised to be a two-pounder take first place. It usually takes a fish over three pounds to do that,” said Capt. Mike Denman who attended the weigh-in.

      Flounder fishing has been good, especially for summer, and anglers have been catching some big fish in the ship channel south of the causeway at Pleasure Island.

    Bass fishing was also good with anglers bringing in big fish from Rayburn Lake and Toledo Bend. This tournament used to see mainly bass in the three to four pound class from the Sabine River and its tributaries brought to the scales. Greg Savage’s 9.05-pounder took first place honors.

      This year a couple of the freshwater species saw very few entries. For the first time ever, there were no mud cats and there were only two grinnel brought to the scales.

      Some anglers questioned whether or not Hurricane Rita’s fish kills which hit the freshwater systems of the Sabine River hard might have played a role.

      “There is not a lot of perch and other small fish in some of the bayous now,” said John Thomas.

      Overall, the event was a big success with the second highest number of paid entrants in its history with 314.

      That is down from last year’s record of 370 but it is still higher than any of the other local fishing tournaments.

      “We couldn’t be happier with the turnout and the fact we raised money for the OCARC,” Thomas said.

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TOURNAMENT STANDINGS

Speckled trout

1. Sammy Hall, 6.05

2. Dean Blanchard, 4.92

3. Albert Bates, 4.46

Redfish

1. Tammy Batton, 6.75

2. Robert Collins, 6.45

3. Damon Mayfield, 6.40

Flounder

1. Kenneth Freeman, 2.09

2. Cody Larose, 2.07

3. Kevin Larose, 2.03

Bass

1. Greg Savage, 9.05

2. Shawn Butler, 6.40

3. Davin James, 3.83

White perch (Crappie)

  1. Randy Savage, 1.54

2. KJ Staudt, 1.37

3. Jeff Bennett, 1.27

Gar 

1. Luke Purgahn, 60

2. Lonnie Feazel, 34

3. Matt Purgahn (tie) Preston Rector, 32

Catfish

1. Eddie Williams, 23.20

2. Jacob Sizemore, 18

3. James Sargent, 17.40

Croaker 

1. Doug Doiron, 1.67

2. Timothy Morrow, 1.57

3. Christian Beall, 1.23

Grinnel

1. Andy Borel, 5.35

2. Austin Borel, 2.58

Rough fish

1. Albert Bates, 50

2. Lee Brown, 15.74

3. Albert Champagne, 14.40

“Don Hubbard” Mudcat

No entry

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