HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Angling for a top-10 finish, Levi Thibodaux knew he had to trust his instincts.
It’s the final day of the Toyota Series Championship on Wheeler Lake, and Thibodaux entered Day 3 in 19th place.
He had a slow morning, and so Thibodaux had to decide whether to try a new spot on the lake.
“I knew how much was at stake, and that I needed to make a move to stay competitive,” Thibodaux said. “I decided to trust my instincts and explore a new area of the lake that I hadn’t fished all week.
“That decision turned out to be one of the best I made during the entire event, allowing me to bring in one of the heaviest bags weighed on Day 3.”
Thibodaux moved up to eighth place in a field of 200 anglers, mostly professionals who qualified for the Major League Fishing event.
With his LSUS hat on, Thibodaux weighed a final day haul of 14-04 to finish with a three-day total of 42-10.
“Achieving such a strong finish against 200 professionals means so much to me and serves as a huge confidence boost,” Thibodaux said. “I had been preparing for this tournament for months, so it was incredibly rewarding to see all the hard work pay off.
“I’ve dreamed of fishing at the professional level ever since I was a kid. This year’s strong finishes during the regular season earned me an invitation to compete in the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, which is essentially the minors in baseball. I decided to accept the invitation and fish the six-event tour next season while continuing college and collegiate fishing.”
Sponsorships are hard to come by for anglers who aren’t full-time professionals like Thibodaux.
But the $22,000 prize he won -- $12,000 for his numerical finish with an extra $10,000 for being the top angler from the Southwest Division – will go a long way in supporting his bid to compete in the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals.
“Finishing in the top 10 of this tournament and earning that payday was an incredible moment for me,” Thibodaux said. “It not only validated all the hard work but also gives me the financial stability to comfortably fish the tour next season.
“I worked construction over the summer to save up and got close to what I needed. As (LSUS coach Charles Thompson) always says, ‘If it’s your time and God has a plan, there’s nothing you can do to mess it up.”
Thompson had plenty of other things to say about an angler who missed winning the Angler of the Year in the Southwest Division by a handful of points.
“What this type of a finish means for him and this program is endless,” Thompson said. “Levi wears his LSUS hat and continues to be recognized as an angler from a strong college program.
“LSUS is competing on a national stage not just from a college fishing standpoint, but one of our guys goes out and finishes eighth among professionals.”
Thibodaux has at least one more season of collegiate fishing eligibility and will suit up for the Pilots when the fishing season returns in January.
