Scott Posey and his family were on vacation last week, taking what was supposed to be a five-day cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. Then the problems started &045; specifically, one hurricane-sized problem named Ivan.

With the port of New Orleans closed, the cruise ship was forced to head to Galveston, extending the trip for two days.

When all was said and done, it was 7 p.m. Friday when the Poseys reached their home in Denham Springs, La. Posey said they grabbed a few clothes, hitched up the boat and started driving to Lake Concordia where they arrived about midnight. At 5 a.m. Saturday, with too little sleep and two much traveling behind him, Posey was preparing to go out on Lake St. John for the first day of competition at the Isle of Capri Casting for Cash Big Bass Tournament.

On that first day Posey didn’t catch any fish big enough to land in the money, but when Sunday dawned, it was a whole different story. He caught a 7.24-pound lunker early Sunday morning, the largest fish caught in the two-day tournament.

Posey’s big bass won him $5,000 dollars at the tournament, held Saturday and Sunday on Lake Concordia and Lake St. John.

Posey said he had some idea beforehand he might do well before he went out Sunday morning.

&uot;Last night my sister-in-law said ‘You’re going to catch a big one tomorrow,’&uot; Posey said.

At the awards ceremony Sunday afternoon at the casino, Posey

was the center of attention. At the urging of onlookers, he showed his considerable winnings to the crowd, then calmly folded the money and put into his wallet.

&uot;It feels good (to win). Look at that wallet. I can’t even close it because of all the money in there,&uot; Posey said.

After a first day in which only one fish more than five pounds was caught, Day 2 produced five fish more than five pounds and three more between four and five pounds.

The second day produced the four largest fish caught in the entire tournament. All but one of the top 10 fish were caught on Lake Concordia and 23 of the 32 prize winners during the two-hour weigh-in periods were also from Concordia.

&uot;That’s a change from the past few years. St. John used to have more of the big fish in terms of total numbers and Concordia would produce a couple of the very biggest ones,&uot; tournament director Eddie Roberts said.

The tournament had only 171 competitors, down from 198 a year ago, though Roberts said he thought Hurricane Ivan may have disrupted a number of potential competitors travel plans and prevented them from attending.

Despite a smaller number of competitors this year, the top ten fish were noticeably larger than last year. The top six fish in this year’s tournament were larger than the winning fish a year ago.

&uot;We got a lot of big fish this year, much better than last year,&uot; Roberts said. &uot;We’re seeing these weights increase every year. Tournaments are a good way to know what condition the lakes are in, so maybe they’re coming back after the bad years we’ve had.&uot;