Matt Hebert, left, and Bucky Crowson smiles after big win.

COTEAU HOLMES — Bucky Crowson of Lafayette, formerly of New Iberia, had a couple things going for him one while fishing the Wednesday Night Hawg Fight Bass Tournament Series in the Atchafalaya Basin:

Water conditions, weather conditions, a hot soft plastic and Matt Hebert, his fishing partner, to name a few.

“You know what? It’s always good to pick a good partner, someone who can put them in the boat for you,” Crowson said with a chuckle Thursday afternoon.

He was talking about Hebert, who hooked and boated a 3.80- and a 3 ½-pound bass in the last four minutes before they had to leave Beau Bayou to bring the weight of their three-fish limit to 9.51 pounds, more than 1 pound ahead of the second-place team of Mike Sinitiere of New Iberia and Brooke Morrison of Broussard. Sinitiere, who nailed a 3-pounder on a shad-colored Whopper Plopper five minutes before they had to leave from the Myette Point area, and Morrison’s limit weighed 8.46 pounds for $312.

Crowson and Hebert’s first-place finish was worth $520 and the 3.80-pounder, biggest of the evening, took in another $260. It was Crowson’s second WN Hawg Fight BTS win of 2018. He won the fifth tournament of the season on May 23 at Lake Fausse Pointe while fishing with Billy Billeaud of Lafayette.

Crowson didn’t see the second “W” coming. Well, he had an idea where they might be able to catch quality bass, he said.

“I was in Georgia all week. I didn’t get home until Tuesday night, so I didn’t get to go scouting,” Crowson said. “But I knew where to go at that level. Oh, yeah, at 7 foot and falling, that’s the place you need to be at.”

However, at 5:30 p.m., he started to the left of Bayou Benoit Boat Landing. After 30 minutes, they had caught two little bass.

“I said, ‘This ain’t going to work here,’ ” he said, so he cranked up and sped off to Beau Bayou.

It was overcast with a light rain, perfect for using a plastic frog — a black Horny Toad — in the duckweed. The bass were bitin’ and he caught about 15.

Hebert went to work in the waning minutes.

“The young guns, they’ve got a lot of energy,” he said about his partner. “He caught two of the three fish we weighed. I caught a lot of them before he got serious. He culled all but one of mine.”

About an hour before Hebert connected on the 3.80-pounder, Crowson missed it, or one just like it, around a cypress tree when it “short struck” the plastic frog he was using.

“I said, ‘We’ve got to go fish this tree again before we leave,’ ” he said.

They did just that and it bit on the other side of the tree.

“He caught that fish at 8 o’clock and the other one at 8:02,” Crowson said.

And that was the difference.

“The amazing thing is no one else was there,” Crowson said, still incredulous that other Hawg Fighters weren’t in the area at that stage of the Atchafalaya River.

“We caught 20 keepers under the duckweed. The Basin’s alive and well,” he said.

He might get an argument from some of the anglers in 26 boats fishing the ninth WN Hawg Fight BTS. Nine boats scratched and five had two bass or less to weigh in when they returned for the 8:30 p.m. weigh-in at Bayou Benoit Boat Landing.

Nolan “Pee Wee” Doucet and Rodney Doucet, both of St. Martinville, were third with three bass weighing 8.39 pounds for $208.

New Iberia brothers Ben Suit and Zach Suit kept their stranglehold on first place in the overall standings with another clutch effort. Their three bass weighed 4.80 pounds.

With two mini bass tournaments left, the Suits have 748 points.

New Iberian Brandon Sellers, who fishes with Johnny Schexnayder of New Iberia, stayed right behind the leaders with a limit weighing 4.42 pounds to push their point Sellers’ point total to 712. Schexnayder has 707.

The next WN Hawg Fight BTS contest is Aug. 1 out of Marsh Field Boat Landing at Lake Fausse Pointe. The $60 per boat entry fee must be paid before 1 p.m. the day of the tournament at Cajun Guns & Tackle in New Iberia.

 

n WEDNESDAY NIGHT 

HAWG FIGHT BASS 

TOURNAMENT SERIES

Point Standings through 

tournament No. 9

(Top 20)

1, Ben Suit-Zach Suit, 748. 2, Brandon Sellers, 712. 3, Johnny Schexnayder, 707. 4, Darrell MitchelL-Leonard “T-Clyde” Norris, 690. 5, Don Shoopman-Jacob Shoopman and Jean Trahan, 647. 6, Chris Vedrines, 642. 7, Ronnie Dressel, 619. 8, Mike Sinitiere, 604. 9, Luke Bulliard, 594. 10, Brad Romero, 575. 11, Mike O’Brien, 571. 12, Alex Lassalle, 560. 13, Carrol Delahoussaye-Danny Bulliard and Vic Segura, 559. 14, Luke Romero-Ben Romero, 556. 15, Paul Resweber, 552. 16, Brooke Morrison, 542. 17, Nolan “Pee Wee” Doucet-Rodney Doucet, 538. 18, Charles “TJ” Norris-Lawrence Kuznik and Willen Broussard, 500. 19, Gregory Bourque and Johnny Hester, 499. 20, Jimmy Gaspard, 436.