Saving the best for last

Fifth-place qualifiers Ritter and Billiot leapfrog four other finalists to grab first-ever Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series win

PORT LAVACA, Texas – Scott Ritter and Chad Billiot couldn’t have scripted it any better. After finishiing in 20th place after the first day of Redfish Series competition at Port Lavaca, the team qualified for the finals in dramatic fashion on day two – snagging the final top-five qualifying spot by a grand total of 1 ounce. However, as it turned out, the team still had plenty of magic left.

With four of the nation’s top redfish teams ahead of them in the standings, Ritter and Billiot headed out on the Texas Gulf Coast early this morning in some of the worst fishing conditions in recent memory. Facing wind gusts in the 15- to 25-mph range, the team survived a brutal 80-mile one-way run, netted two redfish weighing 11 pounds, 5 ounces and returned to weigh-in simply hoping for the best.

“We wound up catching five fish today – two dinks and three keepers,” said Ritter of Dauphin Island, Ala. “It was the least amount of fish we caught all week.”

However, what Ritter and Billiot didn’t count on was that the four other teams in the finals would fare even worse – in some cases, much worse. In the end, their modest final-day catch outpaced the next closest competitors by nearly 3 pounds and proved to be more than enough to complete their improbable run to a tournament title.

“It feels really good,” said Billiot, whose team ultimately weighed in a three-day catch of 39 pounds, 10 ounnces. “I was sweating it out the whole time. But we earned this trophy today. We worked really hard for three days for this. We went from 20th place to fifth to first. I really wanted this win. It’s the best win of my career.”

However, their victory was far from easy. With windy conditions wreaking havoc on the entire field, many teams were forced to go with a series of improvised backup plans thoughout today’s competition. And the team of Ritter-Billiot was no exception.

“The ride was just brutal this morning,” said Ritter. “Then when we finally got to our spot, we had low water, and the water we did have was all muddied up. Eventually we found one little pocket of clean water, and my partner saw a good fish in it. I’m still not even sure how he saw it, but he managed to get it in the boat.”

The team then moved to a large cove about a mile away and began to drift fish with the wind while blind-casting away from the shoreline.

“Chad picked up two more decent fish there,” said Ritter, whose bait of choice was a Pogo Pop N Cork with a Bayou Buck Shrimp Impaler hook and a Gulp trailer. “Basically we found that our better fish had moved off the shoreline, so we had to adapt as well. Overall, given the weather conditions, we had a decent day. We had to make some changes, but in the end, it really paid off.”

With $3,000 representing the largest payday for both anglers as a team heading into the Port Lavaca competition, today’s first-place prize of $50,000 represented a nice payback for all of their hard work.

“We just love starting the year with a win,” said Billiot of Raceland, La. “And now (the Redfish Series) is heading to my backyard. I can’t wait.”

Wiggins-Tanner hold on to second

After recording a three-day catch of 38 pounds, 15 ounces, the team of Blair Wiggins of Cocoa, Fla., and Travis Tanner of Titusville, Fla., finished the Port Lavaca event in second place – walking away with over $15,000 in winnings.

But like most of the finalists, the team battled the elements to scratch and claw for everything they got in today’s competition.

“It was definitely hairy out there. It felt like someone was spraying a power washer in your face all day,” said Wiggins. “Basically, we totally had to change our game plan because of the wind.

“We decided to go to a spot where I had prefished, and we wound up catching two small fish pretty quickly. Then we decided to go to the Intercoastal, and we caught a bunch of fish in the 22-inch range. Then, in the last 20 minutes, we’re able to upgrade before we had to come back in. It was rough out there, but we never gave up.”

Despite the harsh conditions, Wiggins said the team caught approximately 45 to 50 fish using a combination “of about 30 different baits,” but relying primarily on DOA Cal baits.

“We caught more fish in Texas this week than I ever have before,” said Wiggins. “It was a great fishing day. But we just could never get the right bites we needed to win.”

Wiggins’ partner said he was proud of his team’s effort, regardless of the final result.

“We knew going into today that our first game plan was shot,” said Tanner. “But you just have to go out there and fish. Good anglers adapt, and that’s what we did. We just came up a little bit short in the end.”

Team M&M’s maintains third place

Team M&M’s members Dewayne Eschete of Mandeville, Texas, and Blake Pizzolato of Montgomery, Texas, had been one of the few team that had been fishing relatively close to the marina all week. But before the start of today’s finals, the team decided to take a gamble, make a long run and try to go for the win.

“We decided to change our game plan today because we didn’t think had enough fish in our (previous) spot to win. And we really wanted to win this,” said Pizzolato. “We went about 20 miles to the jetties, and then we decided to turn around because it was too rough.

“Finally, we found a little cove out of the wind and caught a couple of keepers there. In the end, we probably shouldn’t have tried to do what we did today, but we’re going for the win. Sometimes you get the chicken and sometimes you get the feathers. Today, we mostly got feathers.”

Pizzolato’s partner said that despite the rough outing, the team was pleased with their performance.

“The conditions were really bad for us today, and our bodies got abused,” said Eschete, whose team ultimately recorded a three-day catch of 35 pounds, 15 ounces. “But we caught two good fish, and we’re happy with what we had today.”

In the end, the team walked away with over $7,000 in winnings.

Tisdale-Johnson drop to fourth

After heading into the finals as the No. 1 qualifying team, Recie Tisdale of Dickenson, Texas, and Judd Johnson of Houston had high hopes for today’s competition. But like nearly every other team, the weather managed to put a huge damper on an otherwise solid tournament performance.

“It was a tough ride today,” said Tisdale. “We actually ran all the way to Corpus Christi, and the trip back was just a nightmare. We came back with a broker Power Pole, a broken jack plate, a broken GPS unit and a cracked boat stringer. Honest to God, the only thing that’s still working is my Yamaha motor. I guess we probably shouldn’t have tried to make that run in the first place.”

The fishing was just as brutal.

“The trip took two and a half hours to get there and three and a half hours to get back,” said Tisdale. “We wound up fishing for an hour, but the bite wasn’t very good at all. With the front moving in, the north wind really shut down our bite.

“We should have adapted and we didn’t. Our thinking was that this was the spot that got us into the finals, so you go with what got you there. But we probably should have known better. In the end, the front got us.”

Although the team returned to weigh-in with zero keepers, the duo still managed a total catch of 31 pounds, 4 ounces – good enough for a fourth-place finish and nearly $4,500 in prize money.

VanDemark-Shaw nets fifth

After traveling seven straight weeks on the road, fishing five tournaments in the span of less than two months and surviving two brutal days of fishing conditions at Port Lavaca, the team of Kevin Shaw of Corpus Christi, Texas, and Tadd VanDemark of Key Largo, Fla., simply ran out of gas in the finals.

“Punishement-wise, our bodies are finished,” said VanDemark. “The abuse we took during the first two days of this tournament was a little more than our bodies could handle. We thought if we could catch 14 to 15 pounds today, we could win this. But the way the wind was blowing, it was going to take us three hours each way to get to our spot. We tried to make a good run today, but after we hit that first wave, we said, `No way.'”

In an effort to make every last attempt at the win, the team limped back across the bay to fish some shoreline areas.

“We caught five reds this morning, but nothing really that large,” said VanDemark. “We might have moved a couple of hundred yards today, but that was about it. Kevin was really hurting, and I just wanted to make sure I took care of my partner because we have some more tournaments coming up. But overall, it was great to make the top five.

“The people of Port Lavaca have been great as well. And no matter where we finished today, we’re still very proud of the fact that we’ve now fished five Redfish Series Western Division events and have never done worse than seventh place.”

Stay tuned

Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series Westen Division action resumes June 12-14 at Venice, La.