A relative youngster at 34, Stevie Nick wasn’t always interested in redfish. As a kid, the Lacombe resident started fishing for speckled trout in the Biloxi Marsh in St. Bernard Parish.
“I used to tell Chad Dufrene, one of the top 10 redfish tournament anglers in the state, ‘I don’t know why you choose those stupid redfish. Why not go out and catch 100 trout?’
“Then Todd Fitzmorris started taking me sightfishing for redfish. From there, Keith Bird hooked me on tournament redfishing. Now, I only fish trout in the off season (November to February), when I can‘t get in my (redfish) ponds.
“I think of myself now as a professional tournament angler, and (I) compete in all seven of the Louisiana Saltwater Series events and Inshore Fishing Association events (called the ‘Redfish Circuit’). I won a $30,000 Ranger boat in the May 2013 IFA tournament. I fished in the Faux Pas Tournament last year and won all five redfish categories.
“My partners in 2013 tournaments were Josh Hall, Matthew Whitman, Kris Robert and Bennie Sanchez.”
All this gobbles huge amounts of time. Last year, he fished an incredible 208 days. Believe it or not, the previous year he fished more — 256 days.
Obviously, he has job flexibility. He works part-time as a salesman and field tester for Standard Mapping Services, the company that produces up-to-date, laminated fishing maps from satellite images, as well as their new line of map E-cards that plug into HDS GPS units.
Nick has taken 2014 off from the competitive circuit to finish course work in pursuit of his goal of becoming a substance abuse counselor.
