MYETTE POINT – A few days after a cold front, accompanied by strong north winds, had Ben Suit on edge Nov. 13 before the Louisiana Bass Cats Classic in the Atchafalaya Basin.

An already low Spillway dropped even lower before the safe daylight start. Still, Suit, a former New Iberia resident who lives in Port Arthur, Texas, was ready.

“It was challenging with the water. Well, in a way it made things easy because there wasn’t a whole lot you could fish,” Suit said about the extremely low-water conditions, which he overcame with five bass weighing 9.22 pounds, including the big bass of the day, a 3.31-pounder.

“I tell you what. I’m glad we weren’t in the lake (Lake Fausse Pointe). I can’t even imagine what the lake looked like,” he said.

Low-water conditions challenged the eight Top 10 bass anglers who fished the bass club’s Classic. Two Classic qualifiers opted to go duck hunting on the second day of the season in the West Zone.

Nevertheless, Suit drove his Skeeter with a 250-h.p. Yamaha Sho at safe daylight as far as he safely could. His original destination was Bayou Benoit but he stopped short at the mouth of the bayou leading to Buffalo Cove.

“It was foggy, so much so I got nervous. I figured there would be duck hunting boats riding around. I pulled off into Buffalo Cove. I caught one keeper. I said, ‘That’s a good sign.’ With a front coming through like that, I didn’t know how they’d respond, so I was happy,” he said.

A short time later, he resumed his boat ride north and started fishing on a favorite point in Bayou Benoit. Within four or five casts he had his limit.

His outlook brightened considerably. With a limit deposited in his livewell, he left around 10 a.m. to finish the day in Crew Boat Chite.

“I caught a ton of fish in Crew Boat. I saw Kevin (his father, Kevin Suit of New Iberia), there all morning. I said I’d give him some space. I ran to a little stretch I always do pretty good on when it’s cold,” he said.

The 32-year-old bass angler who opened his State Farm Agency earlier this year in Orange, Texas, started flipping and punching his favorite artificial jig and got that tell-tale bite.

“He ate it really, really good, gave a good thump. He came to the boat. I flipped it in the boat,” Suit said about the 3.31-pound bass. “That was the game-changer. I thought I could catch more good ones but I only managed to cull up by fractions of an ounce,” he said.

That was enough to win the Classic.

Suit needed every fraction of an ounce to turn back his closest challenger and friend, Jacob Shoopman of New Iberia. Shoopman’s five-bass limit weighed 8.98 pounds, .24 pounds behind the winning weight.

Shoopman finished second and took home $300.

“Jacob gave me a run for the money with his old buzz bait,” Suit said about Shoopman, who had a limit before 8 a.m., then, like everyone else fishing the Classic, tried to cull up.

Suit’s father, Kevin Suit, 2022 Angler of the Year in the Louisiana Bass Cats, finished a close third with five bass weighing 8.42 pounds worth $200. The elder Suit caught 40-50 bass, his son said, but was unable to land a kicker bass, unlike his oldest son, Ben Suit.

“It was a good way to end the year. It’s time to saltwater fish. I tell you, I’m ready to go saltwater fishing,” the Classic winner said, noting he fishes speckled trout and redfish in November-December around Dulac.