Drew Rivet of Breaux Bridge holds 5.78-pound and 4.13 bass he caught in the rain Wednesday on Lake Fausse Pointe. They are first and second in Big Bass Spring.

LOREAUVILLE — The weather got downright nasty Wednesday when Drew Rivet of Breaux Bridge and Dusty Davis of Lydia were bass fishing on Lake Fausse Pointe.

The bass fishing got downright good, which they took advantage of to catch 20-30 bass, Davis said. More importantly, big bass.

Rivet vaulted to the top of the leaderboard in the new Big Bass Spring tournament with a 5.78-pound bass and also stuck a 4.13-pounder in the top three despite the deteriorating weather conditions. Davis, a veteran redfish fisherman who has made his mark in the Southcentral Fishing Association, grabbed a third-place spot with a 3.78-pound bass.

“Ah, it was a good day of fishing,” Rivet said in an understatement Saturday morning. “I couldn’t do nothing wrong that day … perfect weather conditions.”

The 38-year-old offshore worker, an electrical instrumentation technician for Control Concepts, made the most of his 14 days in (he works 14 and 14). 

“A little bait a friend of mine came up with is what we caught them on, a punch watermelon jig with a watermelon soft plastic,” he said, noting he used a 1-ounce model to get the bites that day.

The biggest bass, he said, hit about noon. Well, hit isn’t exactly the word.

“It was in a grass mat in the middle of the canal. I didn’t feel the bite. I saw the fish before I caught her. She ran to the boat, turned and when I saw her, I set the hook,” he said. “All the fish we caught that day, I never felt a bite. They just pocked it up and ran to the boat with it.”

Davis, an electrician who works offshore for Shamrock, said, “That was a good fish he caught. It was a big one.”

They went out the next day, Thursday, in post-cold front conditions and the bite wasn’t as good, Rivet said. However, it was good enough for him to boat and weigh a 4.54-pounder to knock his buddy off the board.

Ricky Watkins of New Iberia, who came up with the idea for the unique bass tournament that began Feb. 1 and ends March 17, said, “It started off slow, but the bigger fish are beginning to bite.”

Watkins and Rivet wonder if that current leader will stay in first place.

“I hope so, but I doubt it,” Rivet said. “They’ve got some big fish in that lake. I hope it stands. I don’t think it will. It might be a third-place fish when the whistle blows.”

Watkins said 30 Teche Area anglers paid the $25 entry fee to fish the Big Bass Spring. The top three bass will share the purse.