Home arrow Press Room arrow New Orleans angler lands second tagged redfish of 2006 S.T.A.R.
New Orleans angler lands second tagged redfish of 2006 S.T.A.R. E-mail
New Orleans angler lands second tagged redfish of 2006 S.T.A.R.
Al Bienvenu registers for tournament hours before catching the lucky fish

“Before you fish on my boat, you have to sign up for S.T.A.R.” That was the order that attorney Billy Perez barked out to his childhood friend Al Bienvenu of New Orleans before the two packed up the boat and headed for Lake Pontchartrain.

Bienvenu, 35, dutifully went back in the house, cranked up the computer and registered for the 2006 CCA Louisiana/Mercury Outboards/NAPA S.T.A.R. Tournament. A few hours later near the eight-mile marker of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, Bienvenu landed a S.T.A.R.-tagged redfish, the second one caught by a CCA member in this year’s tournament. The lucky catch won Bienvenu a water-ready 221 Mako bay boat powered by a 150-horsepower Mercury OptiMax engine and trailer valued at $30,000.

Bienvenu, who is a mergers and acquisition consultant, said he fishes only a few times a year and that he and Perez had few expectations for their recent evening trip to Lake Pontchartrain.

“Billy told me we were going out after work to drink a beer and wet a line. He had just gotten a new 24-foot bay boat,” Bienvenu recalled about the lucky fishing trip. “We were in his house ready to leave and he said: ‘Before you fish in my boat, you have to sign up for S.T.A.R’.”

Bienvenu said the fishing trip had yielded only a few catfish and an occasional school trout, when he remembered seeing something on television about people catching trout at the Causeway “humps.”

“We went there and caught a couple of trout. I threw out a jig head with an electric chicken bait (lure) and got a hit,” Bienvenu said. “I said to Billy that it was probably a big catfish. We couldn’t see much because it had turned dark, but he said he saw a spot on the fish. We pulled it out and it was a redfish.

“I said to Billy: ‘There’s this thing on the side of the fish with writing on it.’ He looked at it and yelled: ‘Oh my God—it’s a tagged redfish. You just won a boat’ and he started running back and forth on his boat.”

Bienvenu entered his fish the next morning at Puglia’s Sporting Goods in Metairie; he will be awarded his boat, motor and trailer at CCA’s S.T.A.R. Awards Banquet October 12 in Baton Rouge.

The 101-day S.T.A.R. tournament features a range of divisions, each with a boat package awarded to the winner landing heaviest fish. But the tagged redfish is the signature division for the tournament. Prior to the tournament, CCA releases 50 tagged redfish, of which the first 10 caught by S.T.A.R. registered fishermen win the anglers a water-ready boat package valued at $30,000.

Sam Barbera, CCA’s S.T.A.R. Tournament Director, said many great boat prizes remain to be claimed in the tagged redfish and other divisions.

“What everybody has to remember is that you can’t win unless you are registered for S.T.A.R. Imagine how Al Bienvenu would have felt if he had landed his tagged redfish and hadn’t registered,” Barbera said.

Just like Bienvenu, anglers can register online at www.CCASTAR.com or by calling the CCA Louisiana office at (225) 952-9200. S.T.A.R. registration forms are also available at all S.T.A.R. weigh stations and instant entry locations shown on the website. The tournament entry fee is $20 for current CCA members. Non-members must join CCA ($25 dues) and pay the $20 registration fee. The S.T.A.R. tournament lasts 101 days, wrapping up on Labor Day, September 4.
 
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]