As fathers know, there’s nothing, nothing at all comparable to spending time in the boat, deer stand or duck blind with a son or daughter.

Kevin Suit of New Iberia knows that times 2. The 58-year-old fishing specialist at Field & Stream in Lafayette has two grown sons to keep him company on the water when he and they have time.

That experience was magnified one hundredfold Oct. 20-21 when he fished as a guest with his oldest son, Ben, in a Louisiana Bass Cats tournament at Toledo Bend. They won the tournament while his youngest son, Zach Suit, finished fourth while fishing with my youngest son, Jacob Shoopman.

Geez. Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday Kevin and I were young men fishing for fun and competitively and now our boys are fishing together.

Suit’s adult sons have emerged as contenders any time they fish a tournament, together, with others or with him. They’re following in his footsteps as a perennial bass club Angler of the Year contender during those glory days years ago in the defunct Basin Boys and Atchafalaya Basin Boys. They make him as proud as he did his mom and dad, Jerry and Margaret Suit of New Iberia.

He jumps at the chance to fish with Zach in the spring bass club tournament at Toledo Bend. Ditto for the fall event at Toledo Bend with Ben.

He’s won one of those Toledo Bend tournaments before with Zach and just notched another win up there last weekend with a second-day comeback in the boat with Ben. (See related story on Page A15.)

“It’s a thrill to win and a thrill to be fishing with him. It was exciting,” the proud papa said.

The win meant very much to Ben, a 27-year-old insurance account executive in his third year with State Farm in Broussard. The Catholic High School and LSU-Shreveport graduate, who pitched in high school and collegiately, savored the winning moment.

“I don’t know how to put it in words. It’s really a special experience to do something like that with somebody you’ve looked up to so long. It was awesome,” he said.

The elder Suit, who starred on the basketball court and the diamond before graduating from CHS, looks forward to fishing with his sons. They like to target bass in Lake Dauterive-Fausse Pointe, the Atchafalaya Basin and elsewhere. The Suits also consistently bring back beau coup redfish and speckled trout whenever they point the bow of their old, trusty Ranger bass boat to Dulac’s brackish waters.

“Yeah, any time I get to fish with them it’s enjoyable and to fish a tournament is always extra special,” Suit said.

“I still have the will to compete … I’m just not mad at them (bass) any more,” he said with a chuckle.

Don’t get him wrong, he said, reiterating, “I enjoy the competition. Always have, always will.”

Theirs isn’t the only father-son team in a boat for Louisiana Bass Cats tournaments in and around the Atchafalaya Basin and elsewhere in Louisiana. Peter Romero, the bass club’s long-time president, often fishes with one of his young twin sons, Luke or Ben, and past bass club champion Mike Louviere of Loreauville sometimes pairs up with young Mike Jr., like he did for the Toledo Bend tournament Oct. 20-21.

New Iberian Marlin Hebert knows the feeling well. He, too, fished bass club tournaments last weekend with his son at Toledo Bend. Hebert and Colby Hebert, 21, won the second-day tournament,

“It’s always enjoyable when you can het out there with your son and compete and win,” the elder Hebert said. “The reason I joined the Coteau Bass Club was they let your son or daughter fish with you all the time.”

Hebert’s son helped him take over the lead in the bass club’s overall standings with one tournament left. They finished second the first day.

There’s pride in the catch, in the successful hunt, out with your child.

 

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of the Daily Iberian.