Bubbie Lopez of Centerville proudly holds an 8.04-pound bass he caught May 14 while fishing a popular area of Lake Fausse Pointe while scouting for a Louisiana Bass Anglers tournament on May 16 out of Franklin.

CENTERVILLE — Bubbie Lopez and his fishing buddy were about to leave an area they were fishing May 14 while scouting for a Louisiana Bass Anglers tournament out of Franklin.

Lopez said he made one last cast with a 3/8-ounce chartreuse/white Kajun Boss Lures spinnerbait and, suddenly, he was hooked up with what proved to be his personal best big bass caught in the Teche Area.

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that at all,” Lopez said.

Lopez, a Centerville resident, and Dicky Fitzgerald of Charenton were fishing in 2 ½- to 3-foot depths around cut grass in a well-known spawning area of Lake Fausse Pointe. They had prefished other popular areas in the lake before Fitzgerald drove his 22-foot Sportsman’s Fabrication bass boat to one last spot.

“We went in there to look see what it looked like for the club tournament. We decided to make a few casts and I ended up catching that good one and a few keepers,” Lopez said.

The “good one” was an 8.04-pound “hawg,” the second 8-plus pound bass reported caught in Lake Fausse Pointe in 2021. (The other was an 8.42-pound bass caught the second weekend of April in one of the lake’s borrow pits on a topwater lure by Travis Meche of Branch, which is between Rayne and Church Point. Meche also caught an 8.82-pounder on May 2, 2020, in Sandy Cove.)

Lopez, 55, said he was surprised by the size of the bass that bit that Friday.

“When it hit the spinnerbait, I didn’t think it was that big. It jumped out of the water and Dicky said, ‘Oh my God! I ain’t got no net,’ ” he said.

Both times Lopez’ buddy, LBA’s defending AOY, tried to “lip” the huge bass, it went under the boat.

“Finally, I tired it out. It came to the top and he lipped it. We took a couple of pictures and let it go,” Lopez said.

Lopez was fishing with 15-pound Trilene Big Game monofilament line on a Lew’s combo, he said.

He was proud of his PB in the Teche Area.

“Oh, yeah, like I said, it’s my biggest I ever caught down here. I was kind of shaking a little bit,” he said.

His PB remains a 12.05-pounder caught while scouting with Brad Frederick on Toledo Bend in 2003. It bit a Strike King Bitsy Bug, which he always has tied on to this day.