About Us

A new association with a new vision.

Founded in April of 2009, Saltwater Fishing Association was created by two cousins, Mike "MJ" Deroche Jr and Peter Dominique from Houma, Louisiana. The pair wanted to create an organization to form a professional Speckled Trout tournament series across the Gulf Coast. "There are pro tours for Reds, Kingfish, Bass and several other species but not Speckled Trout," MJ said. "Specks are a highly sought after fish on the Gulf Coast," Peter added, "So we see a need for a pro Speck tour." The SFA Pro Speck Series launches in April 2010 across Louisiana. All SFA Pro Speck Series tournaments will be two-day, two angler team events. All anglers must be members of Saltwater Fishing Association. Each tournament will be limited to 150 teams.

The future plans are to add tournaments in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida as we grow. Then we will have divisions with each division holding at least 4 tournaments. Teams will be allowed to fish tournaments in more than one division. Teams are not required to fish each stop but are encouraged to follow the series by awarding points to the top 50 teams at each tournament. The points champion at the end of the series will receive FREE entry into the following year's series for their division. Each team will be limited to 5 Speckled Trout per day. Teams are asked to make every effort to keep Specks alive. "We, as avid anglers, know that it will be hard to keep all the Speckled Trout alive," Peter said. "So teams will not be penalized for dead fish," he added. "Instead, teams will receive a 1/2-pound bonus for every live fish," MJ said, "and that is what sets us apart from other organizations."
In the fall of 2009, Saltwater Fishing Association teamed up with Bluewave/Yamaha dealer Southern Outdoors & Marine in Thibodaux and Houma, LA. Since then, Southern Outdoors has brought Yamaha Outboards and, in February 2010, Bluewave Boats on board.

In January 2010, SFA formed a partnership with SaltyCajun.com, a fishing forum website based out of South Louisiana. SaltyCajun.com offers several different sections from fishing and boating, to hunting and other sports. They also offer a section for guides to post reports and tips. The cousins liked the friendly people of SaltyCajun.com and made them official forum for Saltwater Fishing Association.
In March 2010, SFA worked with Billystix Custom Rods, out of Gainesville, Florida, to design the "Official SFA Custom Rod by Billystix". SFA chose Billystix over other rod companies, because of the 1-on-1 attention that Billystix provides to their customers. Customer service is priority one at Billystix and they go the distance to make sure each and every customer is completely satisfied. Billystix had been around the Florida market for almost 40 years and was looking to expand to the west. Shortly after designing the new rod, SFA and Billystix signed a sponsorship deal making Billystix the "Official Custom Rod of SFA".

Meet the Founders

MJ is a career Fire Captain/EMT with the Houma Fire Department. He grew up fishing the waters around Houma and, as a teen, learned to fish Lake Pontchartrain and the Pearl River in Slidell, LA. MJ has fished local tournaments from Slidell to Houma. He also fished as a co-angler on the Bassmaster Central Open Series in 2009. MJ's goal is to retire from firefighting and spend his time fishing.

Peter is an electrician with Third Coast Electrical in Thibodaux, LA. He grew up fishing the bayous and surrounding areas from Houma to Grand Isle, LA. Peter has fished many local tournaments in these areas for years. When he is not working, Peter enjoys chasing Speckled Trout and Redfish in the marshes of South LA. His goal is to become a guide, chartering trips on the bayous that he grew up on.