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CHALMETTE, La. — It is hard to beat right place, right time.

Bobby Abruscato and Scott Ritter put themselves in perfect position for the right bite at the right time to win the Academy Sports + Outdoors Big Easy Invitational.

The Mobile, Ala., team held off local favorites and first-round leaders Charlie Thomason and Shane Pescay, slipping past them by two tenths of a pound to take home the top prize of $40,000 and earn points in race for Academy Sports + Outdoors Team of the Year presented By Crocs.

Abruscato and Ritter posted a two-fish total of 15.56 pounds to win, while Thomason and Pescay weighed in 15.37 pounds to finish second.

Scott Hughes and Matt Haag were third with 14.64, followed by Mike Friday and Danny Latham in fourth with 14.13 and brothers Ron and Chris Hueston in fifth with 13.06.

Abruscato and Ritter mixed in their perfect timing with a big swing of luck and a dash of local flavor for their first Redfish Cup victory.

The perfect timing in the recipe was continually watching water levels and tides to know where the exact spots were each day. In the case of Sunday's final round, they actually reversed their game plan to ensure that casts with their lures would give them the best chances to catch the biggest keeper redfish.

Those casts were made in the Venice area around places with names like "Dead Red," "Crabber's Drift" and the "A Spot."

Those, along with a few other spots, were alternated all week as their primary places. Mixed into each was a healthy dose of hydrilla that filtered the water, clearing it up and allowing almost perfect-sized redfish to hold there.

On the final day, they cast Slayer Inc. spinnerblades and Berkley PowerBait outfitted on ¼-ounce jigheads to redfish cruising and moving around the grass beds.

The PowerBait was a special, "LSU color for the natives."

More important than color was location for the two Cup pros. Their key spot helped the team to a top-five finish in the same tournament back in 2005.

"We always try and focus on areas that are really close to the Gulf," Abruscato said. "Redfish move out to the passes to spawn when they reach sexual maturity at about 4 or 5 years old. That's when they reach 27 to 28 inches. And we just feel the closer we are to that transition area, the better."

Their perfect place and attention to tides and water levels that kept them in the clearest water most of the time was the biggest difference each day.

But it was almost not even a factor on Day One. With more than 14 pounds in the boat, the team lost track of time and actually returned from Venice to Chalmette 30 minutes later than they intended.

"We made it back with three minutes to spare,'' Ritter said, "or we wouldn't be standing here and talking to you."