COTEAU HOLMES — Cranking an underwater hump in deep water in Bayou Benoit paid off with a few bass that got Leonard “T-Clyde” Norris of New Iberia and Darrell Mitchell of St. Martinville close to winning the sixth event of the popular Wednesday Night Hawg Fight Bass Tournament Series.

A patch of grass on the levee side, though, gave up another 2 ½-pound bass on a plastic frog less than 35 minutes before the 8:30 p.m. weigh-in that put them over the top and onto the winner’s stand Wednesday night in the mini bass tournament held out of Bayou Benoit Boat Landing in the Atchafalaya Basin. It was the circuit’s first venture in the nation’s last great overflow swamp, which was settling into fishable levels day by day but still giving up bass grudgingly with the Atchafalaya River stage between 10.0- and 11-feet at Butte La Rose.

Their three-fish limit weighed an unbeatable 7.47 pounds for a first-place finish in the 24-boat field. They won $480.

It was about time, a relieved Norris said Thursday night.

“You talk about it was about time. I mean, from the start we haven’t cashed one. It feels real good. We might have caught our money up on what we’ve distributed,” Norris said with a chuckle. “It’s tough. There’s a lot of competition. The Suit boys. I don’t know what to do with the Suit boys. They’re finding good fish each time out there. You’ve got to give respect to all of them boys. You better not fool around and you better be ready to fish (the WN Hawg Fight BTS).”

“The Suit boys” are brothers Ben Suit and Zach Suit, both of New Iberia. After winning back-to-back contests the last two times out, they finished second Wednesday night with three bass weighing 6.02 pounds for $288 and, for the second time this season, boasted the biggest bass of the evening, a 2.76-pounder worth another $240.

More than halfway through the 11-tournament season, the Suits own a commanding lead in the race for Angler(s) of the Year, which is worth $300 to the eventual AOY. They have 531 points.

Third place in the sixth WN Hawg Fight BTS was nailed down by young Luke Bulliard, who was fishing alone and put three bass on the scale that weighed 5.86 pounds for $192.

Perhaps the happiest Hawg Fighters after the weigh-in were Norris and Mitchell. They earned it after some trying results in the first five outings.

“You talk about happy. We fish. We fish real hard. I’ve got me a podnuh there,” Norris said about Mitchell.

Mitchell, 53-year-old owner of Mitchell Construction, said, “You can’t stop. You’ve gotta keep scouting. The other thing is you’ve got to love what you’re doing. It ain’t all about the money. Money is good, too, when you win. But you’ve got to love the sport.”

Mitchell and his 58-year-old fishing buddy were loving it after that nice-sized bass hit Mitchell’s plastic frog around 8 p.m. They had left the hump that gave up keeper-sized bass on crank baits, fished across from the boat landing before going back up the levee side.

“He said, ‘T-Clyde, that’s our cull fish. Get the net.’ I said, ‘Oh, yeah, buddy, that’s our cull,’” Norris said.

“We had a little one, I guess 1 3/4. We got rid of that little thing we had in the livewell, yes indeed. We celebrated a little … job well done … and popped the top on a cold one. We knew we had three twins in there,” Mitchell said.