Mike Sinitiere, right, weighs bass during the 15th annual Louisiana Bass Cats Open in 2021 at Fairfax Foster Bailey Memorial Boat Landing in Franklin. Sinitiere, LBC president, and the bass club’s board members decided to move the site to Marsh Field Boat Landing for the next Open set for Feb. 19.

There will be a different look and sound to the start and finish of the 2022 Louisiana Bass Cats Open.

Held the past few years out of Fairfax Foster Bailey Memorial Boat Landing, located under an overpass of U.S. 90 in Franklin, and for many years before that at Cabot Boat Landing along Intracoastal Waterway, the New Iberia-based Louisiana Bass Cats recently announced the site for the Feb. 19 tournament as Marsh Field Boat Landing.

“We switched it up a bit because a good bit of boats in the field go to the lake (Lake Fausse Pointe) anyway and we figured we might bring in smaller boats that otherwise might not fish out of Franklin,” Mike Sinitiere, LBC president, said this past week.

The tournament, which guarantees a $1,000 payout for the first-place team, will be the first major local bass fishing contest of 2022. The second big tournament is scheduled to be held Feb. 26, one week later, when the Sunset-based Atchafalaya Hawg Hunters Bass Club plays host to the 7th annual Legends on the Lake, also at Marsh Field Boat Landing.

The 16th annual Louisiana Bass Cats Open’s entry fee is $100 with an optional big bass fee of $10. Registration will get underway at 5 a.m.

Tournament hours are from safe daylight to 4 p.m. For more information, call or text Sinitiere at 337-321-1178.

Twenty-one boats fished the event in 2021. It was held soon after a deep freeze chilled the region. However, the weather warmed up considerably a few days before the tournament won by Hank Harris of New Iberia and Johnny Hester of Lafayette.

Sinitiere believes the turnout will be higher this year.

“It’s the first Open tournament that kicks off the season. We are looking forward to it. We always look forward to it. Hopefully, we’ll get around 30 boats since we moved it. It all depends on Mother Nature,” he said.

Harris and Hester, two long-time fishing buddies, put up with high winds to win last year’s event out of Franklin. In 2020, a heavy rain fell on boaters in the predawn darkness before the tournament, which was won by Adam Marceaux and Kevin Hebert, both of Morgan City.

The 2021 winners pocketed $1,000 with a five-bass limit weighing 20.10 pounds. They needed every ounce to turn back Marceaux and Hebert, who had 19.30 pounds.

Harris said he and his partner rode to the Atchafalaya Basin to an area north of Myette Point, where they caught 15 keeper-sized bass on black/red flake Senkos and topwaters and culled to the winning weight.

Sinitiere, who fished with a friend, Nick Derouen of New Iberia, finished runner-up in the Open for the second time. They had 18.60 pounds.

Who will put the winning bass in the weigh-in basket and where will they be caught Feb. 19?

That’s anyone’s guess as typically some of the most successful bass anglers in the region fish the “opener,” plus while the lake has been extremely low throughout the winter, particularly after cold fronts bringing hard north winds, the Atchafalaya Basin recently rose within a week’s period from 6.0 feet at Butte La Rose to 12.0 feet Thursday. It is forecast to start falling Tuesday and settle around 9.0 feet starting Jan. 31.

The marsh could be an option, although it rarely comes into play in mid-February if the lake and/or nation’s last great overflow swamp are “on” during the prespawn and spawn period.

Fishing areas could be more favorable a week later for the Legends on the Lake tournament out of Marsh Field Boat Landing. The Hawg Hunters spokesman, Jarade Schexnayder, said tournament hours will be from safe daylight to 3 p.m. Entry fee is $75 (including entry in the big bass pot). Registration begins at 5 a.m.

“I think it should be a good one,” Schexnayder said, noting 38 boats fished last year and 45 in 2020.

Bo Amy of New Iberia dominated the Legends on the Lake in 2021. Amy and Raven Owen won the $500 prize and handsome plaques with five bass that pegged the digital scale at 21.36 pounds.