South Louisiana's Premier Sports Fishing Destination

June 14-16, 2007
KAJUN SPORTSMAN
Port Fourchon, LA

CAPTAIN “W” DOMINATES KAJUN SPORTSMAN’S TOURNAMENT!
Wayne Davis’ 57.22-Pounder Wins a Yamaha Powered Contender

by Jack Holmes

Fourchon, Louisiana - Everyone knows that if you want to make the leaderboard in the Kajun Sportsman King Classic, you better not come to the scale light. The 11th annual event once again lived up to its big fish reputation with seven 50s and three 49-pound kings dominating the board. Unlike last year however, a local team, the Captain “W”, took the win and the 23' Yamaha powered Contender boat complete with a Loadmaster Trailer with a beautiful 57.22 king.

Wayne Davis, Clarence Foret and Jimmy Bracato, team Captain “W”, needed the second day to find their trophy fish. After sitting at a rig sitting in 160 feet of water thirty miles from Port Fourchon and only having a 39-pound king to show for their efforts, most teams would look for an alternative place to wet a line on day two but according to Davis, the team Captain, “We went right back to the same area and kept on catching mid to high 30s. We fish this area all the time for snapper and grouper and the water looked real good.” At one o'clock the big king ate a hard tail 25 yards back. “We have caught a king that went over sixty pounds there before,” Davis said before being called to the prize table to accept the Contender late Saturday afternoon. “After Hurricane Katrina we've been so busy in the oil fields,” Davis told me. “And after fishing without a lot of success for the past three years, this is absolutely wonderful. The biggest thing is doing it here at home.” Davis fishes a Mercury powered Fountain.

Five of the top ten teams this year were “locals” while the Pros captured the five other spots.

Another Division 7 team, the Fully Involved, earned second place honors. Bert Baroco, Becky Land, Adam Harrison and Brian Morris slid a 47.88 onto the tournament scales on day one but it wasn't good enough to capture the halftime lead. At 3:30 on day two they were wondering if their king would remain in the top ten but a half hour later a big king skied on a prop washed trolled hard tail. Bert grabbed the rod and the rest of the team sprang into action. “We were fishing 31 miles from Bell Pass in the 94 block and a couple of things became apparent,” explained Bert. “We needed to get this fish in the boat quick and make the five o'clock tournament deadline.” Within 15 minutes the big king was in the boat and with wide open throttles the bow was pointed toward the port. “We got the fish in the bag as we were running and thankfully we made it to the check-in point with two minutes to spare.”

At the dock, the king was hoisted onto the scale and Rick, the weighmaster, shouted out 53.84 giving

The Kajun Sportsman's Kingfish Classic is truly a great event, one that prompts most teams to head to Cajun country early in the week. This year was no exception. Big wahoo and tuna in the 200-pound range were caught and filleted for the trip home early in the week. But as usual, if you wanted to pick up a check for your efforts, you couldn't come to the scale light.

A big tip of the SKA hat to the Toups family for all their efforts and Cajun hospitality. The prime rib dinner was superb and the Kajun boil on Friday night was the best. This is one tournament you've just have to experience!