Luke Bulliard, left, and Brad Romero hold the three bass that weighed 8.53 pounds for first.

LOREAUVILLE — True to form over the past few years in evening bass tournaments, Brad Romero started strong out of the gate with a win this past week in the Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series opener at Lake Fausse Pointe.

The New Iberian, who loves to hunt deer and ducks as much or more as he does fishing for bass, and Luke Bulliard of St. Martinville rode some key catches to a photo finish victory over St. Martinville area bass anglers Braxton Resweber and Austin Theriot. Romero and Bulliard’s three-fish limit pulled the scale to 8.53 pounds for a $700 payday while Resweber and Theriot’s limit weighed 8.45 pounds worth $420.

Romero, a 25-year-old marine technician for Palfinger Marine USA Inc., has a recent history of starting strong in the evening bass tournaments but fading after the springtime. He plans to change that this year in his fast Bullet bass boat.

“I know where they are at this time. Once it warms up, that’s a wrap,” he said.

Even Romero was surprised, happily, that he put the winner’s first bass of the day, a 3-pound class fish, in the boat while fishing the exact location where he caught and released one that size, perhaps the same fish, while prefishing on Tuesday.

On Wednesday about 5:45 p.m., 15 minutes after he left with the 34 other boats from Marsh Field Boat Landing, he said, “I threw back to the same spot and first cast, that bass hit. It wrapped me up in some trees. I reached down and grabbed it. I had to unwrap some line.”

Romero believes it was the same bass he caught a day earlier. He even took a video of him releasing the bass.

“It was in the same spot, over the same branch. I was like, ‘What the hell?’ I wasn’t expecting that,” he said.

He caught another 3-pound class bass at approximately 6:15 p.m. that missed an artificial lure retrieved by Bulliard, who added their third bass around 6:30 p.m.

Romero said he had a feeling they were in the running for first place and the big payday.

“The only one I was really worried about was Braxton. We fish in the same area. We’ve been bumping tit-for-tat,” he said.

He’s looking forward to the remaining 10 regular-season tournaments, including the next one on April 10 at Lake Fausse Pointe.

“I just go out there with the attitude, ‘I’m going to win this sucker,’ ” he said.

That 35 boats entered the first WN Hawg Fights BTS of the year impressed Mike Sinitiere of New Iberia, who with the help of his directors organizes and oversees the mini bass tournaments.

“I was excited about the turnout. It exceeded our expectations,” Sinitiere said after the opener. “I feel everything went smoothly. I like the way everybody hung around after.”

He also was fired up about the number of newcomers and younger bass anglers in the field.

“I didn’t recognize quite a few of them. It’s all new fishermen trying the circuit and young fishermen,” he said.

Third place was nailed down by the father-son team of Lafayette area Billy Billeaud and Greer Billeaud, whose three bass weighed 7.97 pounds worth $280.

The “hawg” of the WN Hawg Fights BTS contest was brought in by Lawrence Kuznik of Lafayette, who fished with T.J. Norris of New Iberia. Kuznik and Norris are teammates on the Ragin’ Cajuns Bass Fishing Team at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

“T.J. definitely put us on the fish. I was just lucky enough to get the bite,” Kuznik, a 23-year-old senior, said about catching the 4.44-pound bass that earned $350.

And what a bite it was at approximately 5:50 p.m. The tournament’s biggest bass bit a buzz bait up close and personal.

“He hit my buzz bait right on the side of T.J.’s boat. It was quick. It just happened so fast.  I was shaking like a leaf after I got him in the boat,” the happy angler said, noting that his fishing buddy was quick with the landing net, making it a complete team effort.

“I didn’t realize how big it was. I just caught him, threw him in the box and went back to it,” Kuznik said, adding he and his tournament partner took time out from the task at hand for a fist bump because it was their first keeper of the evening.

“I thought it was a 3-pounder. I didn’t realize it was 1 ½ pounds more,” he said.

Unfortunately, he said, they were unable to fill out a three-fish limit.