Weighmaster Mike O’Brien, right, watches as Colby Hebert puts one of his three bass in the weigh-in basket Wednesday night at Lake Fausse Pointe.

LOREAUVILLE — Jacob Shoopman’s knack for catching clutch bass — big ol’ fish that make a difference — was put to the test during this past week’s Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series event at Lake Dauterive-Fausse Pointe.

Thunderstorms overnight and early Wednesday changed water conditions that have challenged bass, sac-a-lait and bream fishermen to consistently catch fish over the past month or so, a scenario that greeted the 32-year-old bass angler and his father, Don. Jacob passed the test with a 5.41-pound bass that anchored a winning three-bass limit weighing 10.59 pounds.

First place netted $540 and the big bass was worth another $120.

Jacob said he was pleasantly surprised, particularly after an extra lean half-a-day of prefishing Monday.

“We really hadn’t caught many scouting in one particular spot and I wasn’t expecting to get as many bites as we did, especially with the changing conditions,” he said.

He opted to fish a borrow pit along the West Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee where his dad had caught the only bass, a 4 ½ -pound fish, on a buzz bait in that spot at 3:20 p.m. Monday.

“I figured it’d be a place that wouldn’t be too affected by the weather the night before as far as water clarity and stuff. Actually, I think the rising water helped a little bit. It might have put the fish tighter to cover and helped us get a few more bites,” Jacob said.

The action was anything but fast and furious. However, within 30 minutes, his fishing partner reeled in two small keepers.

“That gave me a lot of confidence after we caught the second one. I said, ‘That’s a good sign.’ At least we were getting bit. I knew there were fish in there. That was more than we got bit the other day (Monday),” Jacob said.

A possible third keeper swung and missed at the chartreuse/white Super Bait Buzz Bait he cast at the base of a cypress tree and pulled about 4 feet. They worked the area over thoroughly and moved on.

“I had a blowup on the other side of the tree. We turned around (about 10 minutes later) and went back, working the area again, and when I came off the tree, I could kind of see a wake behind my buzz bait. I just stopped it. It fell down about 2 inches in the water and I saw her grab it,” Jacob said, noting he slammed the hook home about 10-15 yards in front and to the left of the Triton aluminum bass boat.

“When it hit I saw it was a good one. I saw it broadside right after that and knew it was probably one over 5. It was pretty easy to get in. Ummmmmm, it came up to jump once and tried to spit it (the buzz bait). I saw I had her hooked pretty good,” he said.

His dad was waiting with the landing net on the other side of the boat, where the scoop and score was on target. A celebratory fist bump followed after the younger basser put the fish in the livewell.

Asked if that could have been the same bass that missed the buzz bait earlier, he said, “I don’t know if it was the same fish or not. It was on the opposite side of the tree. You never know. Fish can move.

“At that point, we probably had an hour and 15 minutes to fish. I was pretty confident we’d be able to upgrade our fish being we already had four or five bites. We steadily culled up, starting about five minutes after that big one. We had eight or 10 keepers.”

The first two small keepers were replaced several times before they got their hands on a 3-pound class bass, then a 2 ¼-pounder 10 minutes before they cranked up to get to the weigh-in at 8.

“That made me feel a little more comfortable heading in, more than having a 5 ½-pounder and a couple of 13-inchers,” Jacob said.

It was the second WN Hawg Fights BTS event since the regular-season opener March 18. The April 8 and April 15 tournaments were postponed/canceled because of restrictions put in place during the coronavirus pandemic. There has been no decision on whether those tournaments will be rescheduled.

The Shoopmans, who won the Hawg Fight Angler(s) of the Year title in 2015, notched their first win since another tough tournament on the lake last year on July 24. They had the big bass that day, too, a 3-11.

Wednesday’s win was a welcome one, Jacob said.

“It’s always a good feeling when you can win one of those. You’ve got guys who have been fishing that lake so long and are real good out there,” Jacob said. “Like I told my dad before we went out, ‘I’ll be happy if we catch one.’ He agreed. We wound up with 10½. That’s pretty cool.”

Jacob, a veteran assistant girls soccer coach at Catholic High School, has wo-rked the past four years as a merchandiser for Coca-Cola United Bottling Co. Don, The Da-ily Iberian’s outdoors editor and veteran freelance writer/columnist for the Louisiana Sportsman, retired in January 2019 as The Daily Iberian’s senior news editor after 43 years.

They have been fishing Hawg Fights together since the mid-2000s, before and after Jacob graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University.

Twenty-four boats fished the tournament Wednesday.

The torrential rains Tuesday night and the morning of the Hawg Fight muddied much of the lake as the water rose an estimated 1 ½- to 2-feet from Monday. Still, some hefty three-bass limits hit the electronic scale manned by Mike O’Brien of New Iberia.

One of those nice stringers belonged to another father-son team, Jason Moss and his son, Lance Moss, both of New Iberia, who earned a second-place finish and $320 with three bass at 7.61 pounds.

Local Hawg Fight veteran Ricky Watkins and Mike Arcemont finished a close third with a limit that tipped the scale to 7.31 pounds for $215.

Despite the fast rise in the lake’s water level, nine three-bass limits were weighed under the pavilion at Marsh Field Boat Landing. Eighteen of 24 boats weighed at least one keeper bass (12-inch minimum).

The next WN Hawg Fights BTS event is scheduled to be held May 13 out of the Fairfax Foster Bailey Memorial Boat Landing in Franklin. Entry fee of $60 per boat must be paid before 1 p.m. the day of the tournament at Cajun Guns & Tackle in New Iberia.