The fastest way to ruin a bass angler is to get them hooked into a drag pulling redfish. On Oct. 17-19, anglers from around the south came to the Calcasieu estuary to participate in the 2024 frogg toggs Elite Solo Tour National Championship. The top 10 anglers from the tour qualified for this event that has each angler fishing alone for the top three fish by weight.
Host, Emcee, President/CEO Pat Malone said the tour has fished six events this year.
“We’ve been from Jacksonville, Fla., to South Tex., and all points in between,” he said.
The anglers had to participate in at least four events and the top 10 in points qualified for the championship event. The Lake Charles tour stop was set to crown the tour Championship and Angler of the Year. Each title bringing with it a $50,000 Tidewater boat, Yamaha motor and a McClain Trailer.
The tour limits anglers to vessels with towers no higher than five feet and a speed limit of 60 miles per hour. The anglers often target shallow water redfish and require low draft boats.
The participants were allowed to practice in the area prior to the event and identify a strategy. The Solo Tour Championship is a total three-day event with the first two days resulting in the top four anglers moving to the final day. The first two days of fish caught were wiped from the tally sheet and the final day the four anglers competed for a single day total weight of their largest three fish caught. At the end of Day 2 the four anglers to move into the final day were Tony Viator, Gary Moreno, Travis Land and Michael Frenette.
Louisiana angler wins
Frenette, from the Redfish Lodge of Louisiana and the son of well-known Captain Mike Frenette, finished with a single day three fish total of 22.95 pounds to beat out Gary Moreno who was sitting at 22.55 pounds. Frenette also won the top largest redfish for the three-day event with a single redfish under 27 inches and just over nine pounds.
The real excitement began when Pat Malone and his crew began to tally the Angler of the Year points. When the total was calculated, Frenette and Moreno tied with 457 points over the entire seven event tour. This resulted in a tie breaker, which is the angler with the biggest bag for a single day for each angler. Frenette again beat out Moreno and claimed the Angler of the Year title and a second Tidewater bay boat, Yamaha motor and McClain Trailer.
After thanking the city of Lake Charles and its people, Frenette was visibly emotional.
“It hasn’t at all sunk in yet,” he said. “I’ve been doing this such a long time. I’ll get emotional if I really think about it.
“It was time. The only thing that isn’t right is my dad not being here. I love him. I miss him. This is my 24th year competing against the best anglers in the world. It’s such a learning curve. Not only do you get more mature, you get better at catching them, you figure out where not to go, but man, you put in so much time over the years. You put in so much time and usually you come up second, short or just a little ‘shoulda did that.’ For once it paid out more than I expected.”
