A New Iberia bass angler’s competitive fires burned fiercely on his way to clinching a local bass club’s Angler of the Year title on Oct. 16, 40 years after his second-ever AOY.

“It was like throwing a match on a bed of dry leaves,” Kevin Suit said about returning a few years ago to bass club competition after such a long absence.

Suit said his “eyes were on the prize” from the beginning this year in the Louisiana Bass Cats, whose ranks included previous AOYs in his oldest son, Ben Suit of Port Arthur, Texas, formerly of New Iberia, who won back-to-back AOYs in 2018-2019, and his youngest son, Zach Suit of Denton, Texas, another New Iberia native, who won AOY in 2020.

The crowning moment came on the final day of the two-day mid-October tournament at Toledo Bend, where Suit clinched the AOY title while fishing the event with Ben.

Suit amassed 676 points to finish ahead of runner-up and five-time bass club AOY winner Mike Sinitiere, 631. Rounding out the bass club’s Top Six are Hagen Riche, 628; Max Stevens, 624; Jean Trahan, 615, and Gerard Dupuis, 598.

At 63, Suit is feeling the rigors of bass tournament fishing. He stands up and fishes start to finish and keeps up with all the latest trends in the sport.

“I tell you one thing, though, it’s a younger man’s sport. After each tournament I’ve felt beaten and battered. It took a couple days to recover from each,” he said.

After winning AOY in 1978, the year he graduated from Catholic High School, and once again in 1982 in the Basin Boys Bass Club, Suit ventured away from bass club fishing to compete on the old Bayou State Sportsman circuit as well as team tournament circuits around Louisiana. He qualified for a Bayou State Sportsman Classic.

He also made the prestigious Louisiana B.A.S.S. Federation’s State Team, twice.

After he married his high school sweetheart, Nena Bedia, and when Ben was 6, Kevin reached a crossroads in his life — love for family vs. passion for competitive bass fishing.

Missing Ben’s tee-ball game one time for a bass tournament was the catalyst for change. Suit felt it in his heart and soul.

A devoted husband and father, Kevin shelved his competitive drive to devote undivided attention to Ben, then Zach. When they got older, he dusted off the bassin’ tackle to get them involved, er, hooked, in the sport.

His sons followed in his footsteps and starred in baseball at CHS. Both were pitchers who made it to the collegiate level.

Suit reserved choice words of praise for Nena, who he said never complained if he missed anniversaries, birthdays or holidays since his return to bass tournament action.

That re-entry was a couple years ago when Ronnie Dressel of Loreauville asked him to fish a Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series tournament and they paired up the rest of the season. A desire to fish with and against his sons prompted him to join the Louisiana Bass Cats.

“My goal was to always make the Top Six to fish with the boys and all the guys,” Suit said.

He looks back at the 2022 bass club tournament season with a great deal of pride.

“I probably fished better than I did in a long, long time. Every decision my partners and I made, we made the right decisions. I had real good partners,” he said, adding sometimes bass anglers zig when they should zag at decision time.

He tipped his cap to Sinitiere, Tim Markle and Dennis Worsham, all of New Iberia, Moon Griffon of Lafayette, and his son, Ben. They were his tournament partners on his run to the title.

And what a run it was. Before winning the last three tournaments, his lowest finish was fourth through the first four tournaments.

“It was pretty exciting winning the last three. I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging but it put an exclamation point (to the season). I was fishing really well,” he said.

Suit, lead fishing at Field & Stream in Lafayette, started the year with a third-place finish Feb. 19 in the Louisiana Bass Cats Open, followed by a second March 2-3 at Toledo Bend; fourth May 14 at Lake Fausse Pointe, and third June 12 at Lake Fausse Pointe. Then he reeled off wins at Henderson Lake, Atchafalaya Basin/Henderson Lake and, finally, Toledo Bend.

Going into the finale, Suit held a 27-point lead over 2021 AOY champ Sinitiere, 576-549.

Ben said he didn’t feel any pressure going into the last tournament with an AOY in the balance for his tournament partner.

The 2022 AOY race ended quickly on the border lake shared by Louisiana and Texas.

“Once we caught the first fish, AOY was probably sealed,” Suit said. “I wanted to win AOY but the main goal was I wanted to win the tournament. I’ve always been competitive but I like to win.”

Day 1 was a grind for the Suits. The father-and-son team finally deposited their fifth keeper in the livewell of Ben’s new Skeeter 2021 ZXR21 at 2:46 p.m., after a timely, unselfish tip from Zach fishing in New Iberian Jacob Shoopman’s 19 ½-foot aluminum Ranger.

Day 2 started slowly for the all-Suit team but as he said they made the right decisions after 9 a.m. They had one lonely keeper in the livewell at the time.

Ben recently said, “We started to get a little discouraged. But we pulled up to (another) little point to catch fish back-to-back. We had a little confidence we could scratch something out.”

They moved to a different point and on the fifth cast Ben hooked and his father lipped a 10.75-pound, beautiful bass. That anchored a 19-plus pound limit that gave them an unbeatable two-day total of 30.50 pounds.

Game, set and match for the tournament and AOY.