Fishing tournament lands scholarship money for college

The inaugural South Central Louisiana Technical College fishing tournament held Saturday raised about $1,500 for the college scholarship fund as Tyler Laiche and Blake Laiche won the event with a 12.6 pound, five-fish limit.
Mike Michel of Morgan City was one of the first to arrive back at Doiron’s Landing in Stephensville. While he and his partner Darryl Daigle did not have any bass to enter, they said it had been a fun, pleasant day on the water.
“It was a beautiful day, a perfect day,” Michel said.
It wasn’t long afterward that the Laiche brothers from Lutcher arrived with evidence of an even more “perfect” day as they weighed in their five fish, the biggest at three pounds.
The duo had caught about 30 fish, with 10 of them big enough to have entered, Blake Laiche said. Most had been caught on a Leopard frog or spinner bait in the mid-morning, he said.
“It was a good day on the water,” Laiche said.
There were 11 boats entered into the tournament and everyone had a good time, according to Johnnie Landry, college public relations coordinator.
“We had a great turnout for our first year,” Landry said.
Don Tabor of DaT Sauce, donated and cooked a jambalaya dinner that was sold to help make the event a financial success. Beazell’s Cajun Seasoning made free pork skins and popcorn.
The college’s student government association sold cold water and soft drinks.
The tournament is the most recent idea the college has implemented to involve staff and community working together and searching for ways to make education and training available to students.
College director Earl Meador was appreciative of the efforts that everyone gave to making the event a success.
“I would like to thank all our sponsors and volunteers for supporting our college,” Meador said. “This was an important day for our college as it was our first fundraiser just for technical college scholarships.”
Official placements as provided by Landry were as follows:
—First: Tyler Laiche and Blake Laiche, 12.6 pounds with a $300 payout.
—Second: Chase Martinez and Jeremy Coupel, 10.85 pounds with a $250 payout.
—Third: Adam Marcenux and Jason Pellerin, 10.1 pounds with a $150 payout
—Big Bass: Tyler Laiche, three pounds with a $100 payout.
—Trash Fish: Mike Michel, 2.45 pounds with a $50 payout.