Chagnard-Adams cruise to Redfish Series victory

Louisiana natives dominate final day’s weigh-in, capture second Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series tournament title in two years

COCODRIE, La. – Heading into the final day of competition, Louisiana natives Ray Chagnard and Edward Adams found themselves in third place, 11 ounces behind the frontrunners and having a last-minute debate about where to even go fishing.

To make matters even more complicated, the team found themselves behind the Lloyd brothers who had bagged a 17-pound sack a day earlier and the juggernaut team of Tadd VanDemark and Kevin Shaw who had just won the last Redfish Series Western Division event a month earlier.

In short, they had their work cut out for them. But as it turns out, they had both luck and skill on their side in the finals – a potent combination to say the least.

“My partner (Adams) is very superstitious. He made sure he wore the same hat he was wearing when we won the Redfish Series title at Lafitte (in 2006). Then he told me that he was going to flip a coin to try and figure out where we should fish today,” said Chagnard. “He took three coins and said, `If two out of three land on tails, we’re going to Delacroix Island today. He flipped the coins and all three landed on tails.”

With a location finally settled upon, the two set out for a grueling and extraordinarily risky 2 1/2-hour run to their primary location.

“It was really a gamble on three levels,” said Chagnard. “For starters, you have to go through some flood gates that may or may not be open. And you can’t really figure that out until you get there. Then you have to go through some locks. And then you have to refuel and make sure that you can get back to check-in on time. We really rolled the dice today. Basically, once we got to our spot, we only had about 1 hour and 45 minutes to fish.”

However, their huge gamble paid off. The duo boated two redfish that came in at 16 pounds, 13 ounces – the second largest stringer recorded in the entire tournament. The only catch was that Chagnard, who carefully weighed both fish before putting them in the livewell, refused to tell his partner what the accurate weight totals were.

“My partner had no idea what the weight was because I wanted to surprise him. Basically, I was getting (Adams) back for all of the times he did that to me,” said Chagnard, who, like Adams, hails from Metairie, La. “I told him we had like 15 pounds. Seeing his face at weigh-in when he finally figured out how much weight we had was just priceless.”

In the end, the team walked away with the tournament title as well as a hefty $50,000 first-place check.

“It just feels unbelievable,” said Chagnard, whose team ultimately finished with a three-day total catch weighing 48 pounds, 2 ounces. “If you ever lose this type of feeling, that’s when you should stop fishing.”

Adams, who runs a local charter boat service, said that the winning is great, but competing against some of the top redfishing teams in the nation is just as fulfilling.

“Everybody wants to win $50,000,” said Adams. “But just competing against these guys is a lot of fun. That’s what makes it special.”

Adams also gets credited with putting in much of the homework that was necessary to pull off a tournament title at Cocodrie.

“I’ve been scouting these waters for more than a month,” said Adams. “After a while you really know what to look for regarding baits and water clarity. The other key was looking for areas with a lot of crab traps. Because commercial fishermen do this for a living, you know there’s usually fish where those traps are. You don’t always catch big redfish around those traps, but it helps to know where they are.”

Chagnard said the team relied primarily on H&H Secret Spoons, targeting redfish in grass in about 15 to 18 inches of water.

As an added bonus, the team of Chagnard and Adams moved up to third place overall in the 2007 Redfish Series Western Division standings race.

Team Lloyd comes up short

Day-two leaders James and John Lloyd, who held an 11-ounce lead heading into the finals, managed a respectable final day catch of 14 pounds, 13 ounces. However, in the end, it was only good enough for second place.

“Today, when the clouds rolled in, that really hurt us,” said James Lloyd. “Most of our big fish all week were coming when we’re sightcasting and today we had to blindcast because we couldn’t see the fish as well. But we had no missed efforts. We didn’t lose anything and that’s the best we could do today.”

The brothers said they traveled 35 miles to the east today, targeting redfish in 2 to 3 feet of water on Berkley Gulp Shaky Shad and Super Spook topwater baits.

“This is our fourth tournament in Louisiana,” said James Lloyd, whose team ultimately recorded a three-day catch of 46 pounds, 13 ounces. “In our first tournament we finished in the 90s, the second one we finished in the 60s, the next one we finished in the 30s and today we finished second. So, overall, we’re doing what we need to do. We’re pretty happy with the way things turned out.”

The team won over $7,000 for their efforts.

Father-and-son team nets third

Using a three-day catch of 45 pounds, 11 ounces, the father-son team of John and Chris Henninger finished in third place, winning over $5,000 in the process.

“I’ve won tournaments back East with another partner, but to come out West with my son (Chris) and make the top-five, it doesn’t get any better than this,” said John Henninger. “This was a vacation for us. So to do what we did this week was really special.”

According to Henninger, the team’s strategy was just to keep it simple all week and have the chips fall where they may.

“We just stayed in one area and hunted and pecked for three days,” said Henninger. “We could have caught about 40 fish each day but we decided we wouldn’t throw at anything except big fish. And it paid off.”

“We broke off a pretty big fish today and that probably would have put us in the lead,” said Chris Henninger. “But the one thing I learned from this tournament is that fishing for three straight days is tiring, even if you’re only 20 years old. I feel like a tired old man today.”

Day-one leaders net fourth place in finals

The team of Alden Bourgeois and Todd DuFour parlayed a three-day catch of 45 pounds, 3 ounces into a fourth-place finish and a check for $3,800.

“We definitely dug ourselves out a hole yesterday,” said Bourgeois, whose team eked in the final five by a mere 2 ounces during Friday’s competition. “Overall, we had a good week. It was a lot of fun.”

VanDemark-Shaw fail in repeat bid

After winning the FLW Redfish Series event at Port Aransas, Texas, last May, the team of Tadd VanDemark and Kevin Shaw had their sights squarely set on back-to-back titles. However, in the end, their dream scenario in the finals never quite materialized.

“Everything changed for us today,” said Shaw, of Corpus Christi, Texas. “There was no sun and we really needed some sun. But to be standing up here today is great. We’re amazed we actually came this far.”

His partner echoed those sentiments.

“We just wanted to make a good finish and stay in the lead of the (overall) team standings,” said VanDemark, of Key Largo, Fla.. “I’ve won tournament before and I’d love to do that again. I’ve won a championship before and I’d love to do that again. Winning the team title this year would be great.”

Currently, VanDemark and Shaw have 440 points in the 2007 year-end Western Division standing race, nine points ahead of the second-ranked team of Jonathan and Kris Culpepper.

“The points’ championship is extremely important to us,” said Shaw. “I’ve switched partners the last three years and Tadd’s the best partner I’ve ever had. To eventually go home with the team-of-the-year title would be awesome.”

Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Western Division action continues at the fourth and final regular season event of the 2007 season, slated to take place Aug. 23-25 in Rockport, Texas.