O’Brien, Sinitiere cull at drains on way to clutch win in AOY race

Published 4:15 am Monday, August 22, 2022

LOREAUVILLE — New Iberian Mike O’Brien made one of those game-time decisions Wednesday afternoon that make or break a championship year in any sport.

While pre-fishing the day before the 11th Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series tournament at Lake Fausse Pointe, O’Brien tangled with some cooperative bass in two different places, drains to be exact, that weren’t that far apart. O’Brien, 64, chose which one to start Wednesday’s tournament with the Angler(s) of the Year title on the line for him and for him and Mike Sinitiere.

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It paid off with three keeper bass in the first five casts.

“Thank God I picked the right drain first. I remember I told Mike, ‘Boy, I love it when a plan comes together,’ ” O’Brien said.

“All the credit goes to Mike for finding the fish,” Sinitiere said.

They culled four times while putting 15 or so bass in the boat before the 8 p.m. weigh-in. At the hour of reckoning, after bassers in 16 of the 19 boats had weighed, O’Brien and Sinitiere put their limit on the digital scale and won with 5.98 pounds.

The win was worth a lot more than their payday of $450. They stayed atop the AOY standings with 941 points for a 27-point lead over Greer Billeaud of Lafayette and Andre Cazelot of Breaux Bridge, who have 914 points after finishing second Wednesday with three bass weighing 5.54 pounds for $270.

New Iberians Keith Price and Buddy Fleming are in third with 880 points.

The regular-season finale Aug. 31 at Myette Point in the Atchafalaya Basin will decide the race for AOY.

“We were just shooting for three. But the win keeps us in the driver’s seat for right now. But Greer and Andre came out (second), so we only gained three points on them,” Sinitiere said. “It’s going to come down to the last tournament and we’ll see how it shakes out. We’ll be in a location both teams are very familiar with.”

O’Brien, an outboard motor mechanic who owned Bayouland Marine 18 years before retiring in 2019, agreed and said, “It worked out. Yeah, I’m very proud of what we did. It was great. We’ve got one more to go. I think we’ve got a real good chance. We’re going to Myette Point. Me and Mike fish that area real good. Then, again, everybody else does, too.”

The two bass anglers have notched a first, second and third this season. Their runners-up finish was July 20 out of Myette Point and the third-place showing was April 7 at Lake Fausse Point.

The WN Hawg Fights BTS field returned to the lake after a two-month long absence.

The water temperature averaged in the mid-90s this past week and the summer doldrums gave many bass lockjaw.

O’Brien unlocked the jaws when he scouted Tuesday. He nailed a handful of keeper-sized bass but missed a good-sized bass at a drain that wound up being his second choice Wednesday.

After fishing an hour at the first drain, he said, “I told Mike, I said, ’I’ve got one other drain. I had a backlash on a cast and when I reeled in the line the bait (his favorite soft plastic) wasn’t where I cast. I had a half-ass hookset and missed the fish.”

That proved to be a most fortunate misconnection.

“We took off, went over there and on my first cast at a branch I caught it. It was our biggest fish (approximately 2 ½ pounds),” O’Brien said about the bass that anchored their winning stringer.

Sinitiere, 61-year-old business development manager for Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United, said, “I had a feeling we’d place but I didn’t think we’d win. We were pumped up to cull down to the three because the lake was fishing tough.”

Jacob Shoopman and his father, Don Shoopman, both of New Iberia, finished third with three bass at 5.34 pounds worth $180.

The team’s biggest bass was a 2 1/2-pound class fish the younger bass angler caught on his favorite buzz bait. Their third keeper bass went into the livewell at 7:40 p.m.

The biggest bass of the evening, a 3.80-pound that netted $100, was weighed in by New Iberian Wilfred Gary, who fished with Cory Romero, also of New Iberia.

It was one of two bass weighed by the team, which regretted the fact an estimated 5-pound class bass came unbuttoned at the boat.