Mike Sinitiere has his eyes on the prize through eight tournaments in the WN Hawg Fights BTS. Sinitiere, shown March 23 before the season opener at Lake Fausse Pointe, and Mike O'Brien are leading the AOY race through eight tournaments in 2022. Sinitiere is the circuit's director.

At 64, New Iberian Mike O’Brien said he still has the “eye of the tiger,” the attack mode so crucial in any competition.

O’Brien and Mike Sinitiere share the same approach that has the two-man bass fishing in first place through eight tournaments of the 2022 Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series. Going into Wednesday’s WN Hawg Fights BTS event they have 665 points.

With four tournaments remaining on the 12-tournament schedule, they own a 12-point lead over Greer Billeaud of Lafayette and Andre Cazelot of Breaux Bridge, 653, and a 20-point lead over Buddy Fleming and Keith Price, both of New Iberia, 645, in the race for Angler(s) of the Year.

“There are a lot of good fishermen and the points race is real tight. I think we’ve got a good chance at it. Fishing in the Basin is my type of fishing,” O’Brien said this past week.

“But, yeah, it’s not over with. We’ve got a long way to go. But it feels good to compete like this, still (in his mid-60s). They’ve got a lot of young guns coming up and, you know, they can fish. There are some good sticks out there.”

The next stop on the local evening bass tournament circuit is Wednesday out of Myette Point Boat Landing in the Atchafalaya Basin. The tournament starts at 5:30 p.m.

O’Brien, who owned Bayouland Marine, an outboard motor repair shop, 18 years before retiring in 2019, is gunning for his fifth AOY in Hawg Fight history. He teamed with Paul Resweber of St. Martinville to win-to-back AOYs in 2010-11, as well as the Hawg Fight Classic in 2011.

Sinitiere has yet to win an AOY in Hawg Fights. However, he has a handful of AOYs in the Louisiana Bass Cats and one AOY in the Coteau Bass Hustlers, plus he won a Hawg Fight Classic in August 2018 while fishing with Brooks Morrison of Lafayette.

O’Brien and Sinitiere teamed up last year to win the WN Hawg Fights BTS Classic, so they know how to win together.

“It’s going to be tight. We plan on fishing the rest of them and we are planning on due diligence,” Sinitiere said. “We’ve got two teams on our rear. We’ve just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing and try to be steady. That’s all.”

Sinitiere, 61, played a crucial role in keeping the team in first place with his effort in the most recent tournament July 6 out of Bayou Benoit Boat Landing in the Atchafalaya Basin. O’Brien, the popular evening circuit’s weighmaster, had to miss the eighth tournament of the year because he was away out of town.

Sinitiere held the rope, to paraphrase a popular saying, while fishing alone. The WN Hawg Fights BTS president weighed in a limit and finished fifth in a 20-boat field with 5.22 pounds.

“It was all on his shoulders. He caught his three fish. That was good,” O’Brien said, tipping his cap to his fishing buddy.

They lead the AOY race despite cashing in only once in 2022. They were third April 7 with three bass weighing 6.46 pounds at Lake Fausse Pointe.

The AOY pacesetters had to take a scratch June 8 at Henderson Lake when O’Brien’s outboard motor bumped a stump, encountered problems with wood stuck in the lower unit and limped in past the weigh-in time.

Otherwise, their consistency has paid off.

“Get your limit first. Try to consistently get your three-fish limit. Don’t (always) go for the win,” O’Brien said about their philosophy. “I mean, I like to win. I’m just competitive. That why we do it.”

Sinitiere, a business development manager for Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United, said, “Getting a limit is the most important thing.”

After Wednesday, the WN Hawg Fights BTS schedule has tournaments Aug. 3, Aug. 17 and Aug. 31. The WN Hawg Fights BTS Classic is scheduled to be held Sept. 11.

Down the stretch, Sinitiere said, “I have a feeling we’ll have one in the lake. We’ll probably be in the Basin three out of four of them.”