MANY — All Mike O’Brien saw was a tell-tale swirl after casting a wacky worm behind a large log lodged against a cypress tree on a shallow, main lake point around midday Friday at Toledo Bend.

“I told Mel (Melanie O’Brien, his wife), ‘I shouldn’t do this,’ ” O’Brien said about throwing behind an obstruction.

But the New Iberia outdoorsman, an avid angler and serious deer hunter, did just that in an effort to fish water that might have gone unfished by others. He was rewarded by that swirl and immediately set the hook.

“He didn’t think it was that big. I said, ‘Do you need the net?’ He said, ‘No.’ He thought it was 3 pounds,” his wife, a retired teacher at Dodson Elementary School, said. “(But) I saw the mouth on that one. I got the net. I realized it was bigger than he said.”

About three times bigger, to be more exact.

The “hawg” jumped and her husband took that opportunity to pull it over the deadfall. That’s when his wife saw the huge, gaping jaws on the bass.

Approximately 30 seconds later, give or take a few seconds, and it was in the net.

“I’m serious. I didn’t start shaking until she netted it and put it in the boat. I didn’t realize how big it was,” he said, noting the time was 12:43 p.m.

O’Brien, an outboard motor mechanic who owns Bayouland Marine LLC in St. Martinville, weighed the bass several times on his digital scale and each time it weighed 8.89 pounds. He caught an 8.99-pounder March 4, 2015, at Toledo Bend.

Pleased and proud of his latest bragging-size bass, it still was a little more than 1 pound short of the coveted double-digit bass he’s been trying to hook and land, one worthy of the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program. He has been bass fishing for 40 years, 38 of them at Toledo Bend.

“It’s awesome,” he said about getting two 9-pound class the past two years on the sprawling impoundment shared by Louisiana and Texas. “I just need to get the double-digit, man! I’m working on it.”

The O’Briens were fishing in Housen Creek on a windy day in their Katie O’, a 22-foot long Sentry they usually use to chase speckled trout in and around Vermilion Bay. Their day began in search of sac-a-lait, which Melanie loves to catch at Toledo Bend.

The panfish weren’t cooperating so he convinced his wife to salvage the day with a bass fishing trip. In four hours, their biggest five bass went about 22 pounds.

That 8.89-pounder was in the spawning process, he said, adding he released her after weighing it.

“It was a good day, a fun, fun day,” he said.

The couple was staying in their RV at Cypress Bend Resort.