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Northshore Sac-a-lait Tournament
 Keith Lusher
I had the pleasure of serving as weigh master for the Northshore Sac-a-lait Tournament on Saturday. It was their second event, and judging by the turnout, it looks like this may just be a tournament that sticks around for a while, which is great to see on the Northshore. The event was rescheduled twice due to two separate cold fronts blowing through on the previous tournament days, but they finally got the event in. It was great to see the camaraderie among the fishermen as they started showing up at the Main St. boat launch in Madisonville to pick up their boats around 2:30 p.m.
One of the tournament directors, Billy Adams, was relieved that the day had finally come. “After two cancellations, I’m just glad we were able to have good weather so we could get back to fishing,” he said. While it was a sunny day, the anglers struggled with the winds and the boat traffic in the main river, which made it frustrating. “The main river was where the action was at,” Adams said. “Unfortunately, that was where the wind and the other knuckleheads were also.” Miller warns those who plan on fishing to get out early because from now until September, the pontoon boats and jet skis will make it hard to fish the river. “It’s all over around 10 a.m.— there are just too many boats out there to enjoy yourself,” he said. 
Doug Kuenz watches as his "big fish" is weighed on the scale
As I added and removed fish on the scale, I called out the weights as Miller wrote down the numbers. In the end, it was Chris Populis and Archie Populis who came out on top with a 7-fish stringer that weighed 7.36 pounds. In second place were Jason Villerie and Brad Felter, who managed a limit weighing 6.12 pounds. Philip Alexander fished solo to take third place with a 4.82-pound limit. Jason Villerie won the big fish pot with a 1.6-pound sac-a-lait. An added bonus to the tournament is the “smallest fish” award, which is handed out to the person who weighs in the tiniest fish. This year’s prestigious award went to Ray Miller, who managed to catch a 1-ounce fish.
After the weigh-in was over, all of the anglers enjoyed fresh fried fish and French fries courtesy of Bert Gauley of Maurepas. Tony Bean of Springfield was in charge of frying the fish. 
Toby Bean lays a sac-a-lait fillet into the hot grease at the weigh-in
When Bean finished fishing, he raced back to crank up the burner and oil before all the other anglers returned. Bean said this will be the norm for the tournament moving forward, as everyone enjoyed the fried food after the weigh-in. Before leaving, I was able to get Beans’ recipe for fried fish, which was intriguing as he seasons the fillets with Cajun Two Step seasoning before battering them.
In the end, Miller was pleased with the 10-boat turnout and looks to build upon it for the next event. “We are already looking forward to our next big tournament on the Tickfaw River in October. |
I created NFR.com in the spring of 2012. Since then it has helped link Northshore fishermen to valuable information and has filled the void of absent information on the web about fishing on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Northshore Fishing Report has morphed into a brand name and can be found not only on the web, but on radio and newspaper. As NFR grows I will continue to work hard at keeping NFR local focusing on local anglers, reports, seminars, and fishing tournaments in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parish. I hope you enjoy the website and If you have any questions please email me at: Keith@NorthshoreFishingReport.com
Look for the Northshore Fishing Report publication every Thursday in The Slidell Independent Weekly Newspaper!
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