Mike Sinitiere, left, and Zach Suit, right, check the chip board under the pavilion at Marsh Field Boat Landing before the WN Hawg Fights BTS opener on March 18. Thirty-two boats signed up for that one. However, Sinitiere, Suit and the rest of the board decided this past week to postpone Wednesday’s Hawg Fight.

Mike Sinitiere, third-year director of the Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series, had bad news for those hopeful of fishing the next tournament scheduled for Wednesday.

“We’re going to postpone it. Things haven’t changed,” Sinitiere said Friday morning.

“Things” include the social distancing rules forbidding crowds to gather during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. 

COVID-19 concerns prompted the postponement of the year’s second WN Hawg Fights BTS event this past Wednesday.

“It is disappointing but people are going through a lot worse. We would love to be out there fishing but we have to be responsible,” Sinitiere said, noting that he contacted each of the five board members as well as two veteran bass anglers before making the decision.

The 2020 WN Hawg Fights BTS season opened March 18 at Lake Fausse Pointe. Ben Suit and his brother, Zach Suit, both of New Iberia, Angler(s) of the Year champs in 2018 and 2019, won that tournament with a three-fish limit weighing 9.02 pounds.

WN Hawg Fights BTS officials purposefully scheduled the second event for April 8, skipping a week to avoid a conflict with a major tournament at Toledo Bend. But that local event was postponed.

“It’s for the best. Like I said, people are going through a lot worse,” Sinitiere said.

The next tournament is scheduled to be held April 29.