Charpentiers enjoy their winning combination

Published 6:00 am Sunday, April 22, 2018

On the surface, under the light of the pavilion at Marsh Field Boat Landing, it probably looked like young Ian Charpentier was the happiest bass fisherman on the winning two-man team Wednesday night at the third Original Hawg Fight of 2018. 

Dean Charpentier, his father, was bursting with pride and happiness inside. The Charpentiers had teamed up to top a nine-boat field fishing the third Original Hawg Fight with three bass weighing 7.67 pounds at Lake Fausse Pointe. 

The elder bass angler saw something that touched his heart. 

“When they announced our names (as the winners), that boy turned around and put his arms around my neck and hugged me. I said he really does love this. It was unbelievable. To see that boy’s face, that was the best day of my life,” Dean Charpentier said approximately 24 hours later while talking about his first-ever bass fishing contest on any level, a win nonetheless. 

The exuberance of youth truly shined on a cool night in mid-April. The story that unfolded is the kind that gives competitive bass fishing a good name.

“The good part about it was all the guys coming up to me and Ian, especially Ian. I was happy to see him take it, man,” Dean Charpentier said. 

“He (Ian) talked me into doing this, him and Michel Fox. I had no confidence, being out there in a Pro-Drive,” he said. 

“I’m not real big in bass. Ian, though, he’s actually the one more involved in the bass fishing that I am. He fished a couple tournaments with Caleb Sumrall. He fished a couple tournaments with him and got hooked.” 

Hooked is an understatement. The Catholic High School junior loves bass fishing. 

The 16-year-old bass angler is so gung-ho he wants to start a fishing team at Catholic High School. He welcomes any assistance he can get toward that goal, the teenager said.

He certainly cut his teeth while fishing with one of the most outstanding bass anglers in the Teche Area. Sumrall, who fished Hawg Fights, is fishing Bassmaster Elite Series tournaments and Opens. 

The icing on the cake was Wednesday night. The father-and-son team was ready and rarin’ to go at 5:23 p.m.

Still, the elder Charpentier, a 54-year-old welding manager at Schlumberger, where he has worked 30 years, was in uncharted waters, competitively speaking, when they took off ahead of the nine-boat pack at the start of the Original Hawg Fight. He was prepared to give it the ol’ college try for his son. 

A keeper bass hooked and boated by his son a few minutes after they began fishing  pumped confidence into both of them. After the next bite turned out to be a big, ol’ ugly choupique, that confidence returned and mushroomed bass by bass.

“It was fun, I tell you, man. I’ve got to give thanks to Michel and Ricky (Watkins). Michel’s the one who talked me into it,” he said. 

“I’m a fisherman, now,” he said, clarifying his status as a bass angler. 

“I fish pretty much every weekend. But I’m not into the tournament circuit.” 

That bass fishing fever has gripped his son was so evident before, during and, especially, after the first-place finish. 

“He’s actually got me looking at bass boats now,” he said with a chuckle. 

And dad doesn’t mind a bit. 

“You get a kid involved in something like this and it keeps them out of trouble,” he said. 

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.