LOREAUVILLE — The checklist for the winners of the 10th Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series must have looked something like this Wednesday on Lake Fausse Pointe:

Moving water. Check. Baitfish (shad). Check. Points. Check. Crank baits. Check.

With the ongoing heat wave, Todd Citrano of St. Martinville and Preston Lopez of New Iberia realized the key to getting bit was to find moving water, for sure, and they did in the borrow pit canal along the West Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee.

“You’ve got to find a little current and a little wind helps with the moving water,” Citrano said after they won the mini bass tournament with a three-bass limit for 7.87 pounds, most of it belonging to a 5.65-pound giant that filled the weigh-in basket.

“We were fishing in the main canal along the levee. You could see those shads. You’ve got to see those shads popping,” he said, noting they targeted points and worked them over with crank baits.

On his fourth cast of the evening, Citrano’s game plan paid off. The big bass inhaled the white/chartreuse stripe Bandit medium-diving crank bait, stopped it cold and he set the hook.

“He had it dead in his throat. He wasn’t coming off,” Citrano said.

“When I hooked it, I knew he was a good one. It went off to the side, to the deep. Then it jumped. I didn’t think it was that big until it jumped. I said, ‘Preston, that’s a good one.’ Preston got the net,” he said.

That “hawg” didn’t get away but two others did before the 8:30 p.m. weigh-in.

“Preston hooked a good one, a good 4-pounder, for sure. Then we missed another one,” he said.

The first-place finish in the 27-boat field that fished out of Marsh Field Boat Landing was worth $540. The winners added another $270 with the biggest bass of the evening, the 5.65.

Citrano, 54-year-old plant supervisor at Cajun Chef Products LLC in St. Martinville, was excited about the outcome in the next-to-last regular-season WN Hawg Fights BTS.

“Oh, it feels good, man. They’ve got some good fishermen, you know what I mean? It’s tough to win but I’ll take it. It’s good competition. I’ve been fishing with everybody for a long time, for years,” Citrano said.

Still, Citrano and Lopez, 51, a mechanic at Cajun Chef, were hard-pressed for the win by veteran Teche Area bass anglers Ronnie Dressel of Loreauville and Kevin Suit of New Iberia. They overcame the tough conditions to bring back a limit weighing 7.04 pounds worth $324.

Mike Sinitiere of New Iberia and Brooke Morrison of Broussard also checked in with three bass, which weighed 5.87 pounds for $270.

The race for first place stayed the same going into the regular-season finale Aug. 15 at Myette Point Boat Landing in the Atchafalaya Basin. New Iberians Ben Suit and Zach Suit, Kevin Suit’s sons, remained atop the point standings with 815 points.

 

WEDNESDAY NIGHT HAWG FIGHTS BASS  TOURNAMENT SERIES

Top 20

1, Ben Suit and Zach Suit, 815. 3, Brandon Sellers, 772. 3, Johnny Schexnayder, 767. 4, Darrel Mitchell and Leonard “T-Clyde” Norbert, 763. 6, Jean Trahan, 721. 7, Chris Vedrines, 718. 8, Ronnie Dressel, 714. 9, Don Shoopman and Jacob Shoopman, 707. 10, Mike Sinitiere, 694. 11, Luke Bulliard, 654. 12, Mike O’Brien, 642. 13, Ben Romero and Luke Romero, 641. 15, Brad Romero, 635. 16, Brooke Morrison, 632. 17, Alex Lassalle, 629. 18, Carroll Delahoussaye and Danny Bulliard, 624. 20, Paul Resweber, 623.