Ricky Pontiff of Jeanerette won the Hawg Fight opener in Lake Fausse Pointe.

LOREAUVILLE — A Jeanerette bass fisherman got a bad case of tennis elbow — er, bass fishing elbow — on his 61st birthday Wednesday while fishing for bass in

Lake Fausse Pointe.

Ricky Pontiff fought through the pain in his left elbow, however, and landed four keeper-sized bass on his way to winning the year’s first Hawg Fight, a mini-bass tournament held every other Wednesday.

Pontiff, a retired machinist/draftsman at Vernon Manufacturing in Parks, topped a 34-boat field that fished on a pleasant spring afternoon that turned stormy about

30 minutes after the 5:30 p.m. start out of Marsh Field Boat Landing.

“Winning the first tournament of the year put the icing on the cake on my 61st birthday,” Pontiff said after he culled to a three-fish limit that weighed an impressive

8.26 pounds. “I had a good time. That’s the most weight I’ve ever caught in a Hawg Fight.”

The turnout for the season opener was one of the largest in Hawg Fight history.

Paul Resweber of St. Martinville, one of the circuit’s new tournament directors, was pleased with the showing that included bass anglers from as far away as Erath

and Lafayette.

“It was good. It shows people really like the tournament. I was thinking 20, 25 (boats),” Resweber said. “It was just a little hectic at first making sure with the

waivers and what-not.

People were patient.

“Other than that, everything ran as well as expected. I appreciated the help from other participants, as well. Charles Oubre helped out with checking of livewells and

everybody was passing on the message for the weigh-in time and the rule for no passing in the Teche Lake Canal.”

Resweber, who fished the contest with Mike O’Brien of New Iberia, tipped his cap to Pontiff.

“That was surprising. We had heard the lake was tough. He did his homework,” he said.

Pontiff, who fished by himself and won $435, was unable to motor to his first choice because of an approaching storm, so he chose his second spot. Two 3-pounders were in the livewell before 6 p.m, he said.

The second football-sized bass did something to his left arm, though. He chuckled and attributed the injury to old age, noting he was going to visit an orthopedic

doctor soon.

“I was having trouble with my elbow and after my second fish I lost three keepers because I couldn’t hold the rod. I couldn’t set the hook. I could barely hold the rod in my hand,” he said, noting he “heard something pop.”

However, around 7:15 p.m., 45 minutes before weigh-in, he boated two more keepers and culled to the winning catch. He said all of the bass bit on june bug Ultra-Vibe Speed Craws around patches of grass in a shallow canal near Big Dogleg.

“I want to congratulate the new tournament directors for doing a good job in the first tournament of the year. They did a great job,” he said.

Caleb Sumrall and Damien Clemente came closest to the winner with a three-bass limit weighing 6.36 pounds for $261.

Brad Verret of Jeanerette and Keith Price of New Iberia finished third with three bass weighing 6.22 pounds for $174.

Fourth place and $100 went to Vic Segura of New Iberia and Lester Viator of Jeanerette, who had three bass weighing 5.76 pounds.

St. Martinville’s Carroll Delahoussaye and Danny Bulliard boasted the biggest bass of the evening, a 3.60-pounder that netted them $290. The second-biggest

bass was caught by Sumrall and Clemente, a 3.45-pounder worth $50.

Delahoussaye, 62-yearold St. Martin Parish Council member and athletic director at St. Martinville Senior High, said he and his longtime Hawg Fight partner struggled

to put two keeper bass in the boat while fishing Grand Avoyelles Cove.

“Well, I thought we’d catch more fish. Maybe the weather (storms) had something to do with it. We weren’t alone in the area with two boats there so we had a small area to fish,” he said. “We only caught three fish altogether — one short fish and one barely 14-inch fish. We were lucky to get that big one.”

They fished swim baits and other soft plastics at first, he said, then “passed back with a buzz bait and topwater bait and did better with those. He (the 3.60-pounder) was around a cypress tree. He sucked it under.”