Charpentier, Clements’ limit wins Original HF

Published 6:00 am Sunday, June 3, 2018

LOREAUVILLE — Damein Clements’ bass fishing contest blues are disappearing.

Clements, who has fished big circuits and little circuits, big tournaments and little tournaments, cashed in for only the second time this year when he won the Original Hawg Fight’s sixth mini bass tournament of 2018 on Lake Fausse Pointe. The 31-year-old Clements, a Franklin native who lives in Abbeville, and Dean Charpentier topped a handful of boats that fished the Original Hawg Fight out of Marsh Field Boat Landing on a hot and dry Wednesday evening.

“It felt great because I’m coming off a pretty bad losing season this year. I haven’t cashed many checks like I normally do,” Clements said.

He has tried his hand at the Bass Champs, Bob Sealy’s Big Bass Splash, LOBI and TOBI events and come up empty-handed, he said. However, his fortunes started to change in the Original Hawg Fight No. 4 on May 2 when he and Brad Romero finished second with 5.61 pounds behind Todd Citrano and Preston Lopez, who had 8.42 pounds.

“I had a second place with me and Brad. I was able to pump my spirits up a little bit,” he said.

Clements, a materials handler for Drilco Inc. in Broussard, got over the hump with the win this past week as he topped a 10-boat field. The winning team’s three-fish limit weighed 6.25 pounds, just enough to turn back the runner-up team of Bucky Crowson and Matt Hebert, whose three bass weighed 6.21 pounds.

Clements said they caught five keeper bass and culled to the winning weight. He caught all three bass that went on the electronic scale, he said, two of them on a chartreuse/white Cajun Tackle House Thumper Humper spinnerbait and one on a Missile Baits Love Bug D-Bomb under a ¼-ounce Kajun Boss tungsten weight.

He said they were able to cover more water because of the wind.

“I knew the way the wind was blowing, they’re be up tight against the cypress trees. I was able to target the calm side of the tree the way they were sitting and not have to go all around a trees. That way we covered more water,” he said.

It was the second Original Hawg Fight win this year for Charpentier. Charpentier and his son, Ian, won the third contest with three bass weighing 7.67 pounds, including the biggest bass of the day, a 3.41-pounder, on April 18.

The big story Wednesday, literally, belonged to Alex Lassalle and Grant Lassalle. They finished third on the strength of one giant bass, a 5.92-pounder that easily was the biggest bass of the OHF No. 6. They collected $70 for third place and another $50 for the mini bass tournament’s lunker bass.

The next Original Hawg Fight is scheduled for June 13.